Podcasts about Pepsi

Pepsi is slashing prices for some of its most popular brands, some by 15%. The company said it has spent the past year listening to consumer feedback. Nah. What happened is always what happens in this economy and why there is no breakout inflation. Companies that do raise prices end up sacrificing volumes because their customers can't afford to pay more. Eurodollar University's Money & Macro Analysis----------------------------------------------------------------Eurodollar University LIVE — February 2026, President's Day WeekendSmall group. Intimate setting. Direct access to experts you won't get anywhere else. Only a few VIP slots remain.Sign up here: https://eurodollar-university.com/event-home-page----------------------------------------------------------------PepsiCo to cut prices of Lay's, Doritos as consumers push backhttps://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/pepsico-tops-quarterly-revenue-estimates-resilient-demand-sodas-2026-02-03/After Years of Increases, PepsiCo Pledges to Cut Prices on Snackshttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/pepsi-doritos-cheetos-prices.htmlhttps://www.eurodollar.universityTwitter: https://twitter.com/JeffSnider_EDU

Kiera is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors, to talk about tax strategy not just for 2025 success, but 2026 and beyond. They discuss asking your CPA the right questions, shifting income from your higher tax bracket down, the Augusta rule, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am super jazzed. I have an incredible guest joining us on the podcast today ⁓ to talk about last minute tax strategies before April 15th. Like why not? I mean, hey, maybe you were like, you're not the early bird. You were like, shoot, I forgot. Like what things can I do? And so I'm super excited. Alexis Gallati, she reached out to us. ⁓ She is founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors.   Ansari Real Wealth Academy. And I was so excited about this topic because I know you guys know I love to geek out about this and I have it on my vision board of tax expert ahead. Like I hate taxes. I love taxes. I believe that taxes are such a beautiful way for us to pay to be in this incredible country. But you better believe I don't want to pay a penny more than I need to. So really figuring that out just a little bit about her is she is got a dual master's degree in business administration and taxation, which is super rad because   Let's be real, she gets the business side of it. She gets the taxation and we were chatting before and she was like, what people make like their top line revenue versus their take home pay are two different things. And I was like, amen sister, preach on. She's enrolled agent, NTPI fellow and certified tax strategist. She also is the author of advanced tax planning for medical professionals. She specializes in high level strategic tax planning and multi-state tax preparation for healthcare professionals and business owners. She's raised in a family of physicians and married to one.   She empathizes with the financial challenges medical professionals face. This personal connection inspired her to create accessible, unbiased tax solutions tailored to their busy lives. Driven by passion and guided by cerebral thinking, Alexis forms Cerebral to help professionals keep more of their hard earned money. Amen sister. That's what we want. That's why you're here. Their approach breaks the mold of traditional financial advice, offering a unique perspective for medical professionals and business owners. So while yes, she's not 1000 % dental guys were in the healthcare world and she's so brilliant. So Alexis, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Alexis Gallati (01:54) Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.   The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes, likewise. And I was so excited when I heard that you would be a guest on our podcast. I geek out about this, Alexis, I know it's like our first day meeting, but ⁓ I just think the world of tax is such the game of monopoly. And I'm like, if you would have just told me that rule, I could have played and won the game better. But I feel like it's always as ever changing, ever evolving. And I know there were some big things that happened in 2025 that are impacting like our our taxes. And so, yeah, definitely a timely and   exciting podcast to throw out there. So Alexis, I know I gave you a very welcomed ⁓ bio and intro, but yeah, tell us a little bit about who is Alexis. You're married to a physician. You're in this world of tag. How does one become obsessive about CPA? I'm truly just curious. How do you like, how does this happen? How did you become this?   Alexis Gallati (02:49) Yeah, so I love law and I love money. And so when I was in undergrad, I took a tax and accounting class and loved more the tax side than the accounting side, I do admit. And so after meeting my husband in college and us starting to go through that full medical journey, was about a year and a half out from him.   The Dental A Team (02:54) you   Alexis Gallati (03:18) from him finishing his residency. And I really saw the writing on the wall. Even at that time, with him being in residency, about four months of his salary was going towards taxes. And I was like, that's not right. That's not right. With   The Dental A Team (03:36) No.   Alexis Gallati (03:38) hard he works and how hard   medical community works in general. ⁓ my gosh, that's not right. So that's when I really dedicated myself to   finding out, why do the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates of the world have this really low to sometimes non-existent tax bracket? And I really dove into that tax planning. ⁓ And so, you know, what's very unique about, ⁓ you know, the way that I work and my business is that my husband and I are in the same exact position as majority of our clients. And so, yes, I'm looking for   strategies for my clients, but I'm also looking for those strategies for myself.   The Dental A Team (04:19) You're like, hey,   it's me. I'm going to help myself out. I'm very motivated to do this.   Alexis Gallati (04:25) Very motivated. And I love it. I love it. It's like you said, it's ⁓ Congress keeps us on our toes, changing the laws consistently year after year. ⁓ it's like a puzzle. Like, hey, how can I just keep more of what I'm earning?   The Dental A Team (04:43) Yeah, and I, this is what I get obsessed about. what I learned, gosh, it's like, I was so naive when I started the company. was like, marketing is marketing. I just need to hire a marketer they can do everything. And then I was like, oh, there's a content marketer. There's a copywriter marketer. There's a strategist. There's a growth marketer. There's like an AEO marketer now. There's an SEO. Like you guys, this thing is like a web. They're a content marketer. And then I started realizing it's similar to CPAs and financial planners that like,   I thought you hire a CPA, Alexis. Like I'm so naive to business. I'm shocked that I've made it this far. Like truly I'm proud of like the journey we've been on, but like not all CPAs are created equal. And then I realized like CPAs play by different rules. Like it's the same rule, but there's shades of gray. They're how comfortable are you with this and how uncomfortable are you with it? Like there's one CPA that told me like, here, you can totally go skiing in Tahoe. Just like put your logo on your skis and you can totally ride it off and like put your logo on your boat and you can ride it off.   And then there's like the Alexis of the world was like, oh, hard pass. No, you're going to like totally get flagged. But I'm like, what rule is right? And so I realized that there are, like you said, tax strategy and for higher wealth earners. I do believe that there's a game, like you said, how did the Warren Buffett's, how did the Bill Gates, like they're not paying this. And then you get into the real estate game and you get into all these other things. You're like, how can we do this? And so Alexis, I'm just jazz. This is me being nerdy. And I'm going to ask you a bajillion questions and I can't wait.   to learn. So let's kind of talk about most of your clients, what's the size of take home net pay that they do. So that way we know like what brackets were in. So that way right clients come to you. I also learned not all financial advisors take all people. I was like, I make 30 grand. They're like, great. So we're going to help you out just a little bit. And then like, when you get to this level, we'll chat with you. ⁓ tell us kind of that. And then let's dig into how do we keep more money, Alexis, legally.   Alexis Gallati (06:10) I love it.   The Dental A Team (06:39) I'm here for legal advice. I'm willing to go gray, but not go to jail. So that's my line. So as long as we're on the same page, I think we are, I'm here for it.   Alexis Gallati (06:40) Yes.   Definitely, yeah. I am more than happy to play in the gray areas. We just have to feel comfortable defending it in an audit. And so that's our line in the sand. ⁓ But yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:55) Mm-hmm.   She's like, this is why I went to law guys. This is why I like the law side and the CPA.   I like it. I like your style. It's so unique and I just am excited. So, okay, I'm ready.   Alexis Gallati (07:07) Yeah.   Yeah. at Cerebral, we work with those that earn at minimum $400,000 per year in taxable income. So we have lots of businesses, which by the way, 99.9 % of our clients are medical professionals. I think we have like maybe two clients that have zero ties to the medical industry. And so the practices we work with, you know,   generally range from anywhere from maybe about $700,000 in gross revenue all the way up to eight figures. So we tend to not work with those that are larger practices, that usually over 50 employees. And that's just because once you get above 50 employees, yeah, it changes quite a bit. So we're definitely in there with those smaller to medium sized practices.   The Dental A Team (07:56) Tax co-changes. Yep.   Amazing. No, that's super helpful. And I know we were talking before, like the average of your clients, about 700,000 like net pay is typical where you guys are at. You have some that are higher, but that minimum of 400,000, which is great because I do think that there are thresholds. ⁓ And I did learn through going through business that who Kiera needed as a tax support and advisor when I was in that 30,000 range compare and as a business owner, I thought it was so funny.   Gosh, taxes, like they hurt so bad sometimes. Like, whoa, easy come, easy go. Like I've never, I've always been a W-2. So that was such a fascinating world for me. But yeah, let's dig into some of the things you've seen for the medical world. Cause I know I have friends that were physicians and they're really big on real estate. And like I took the real estate Kool-Aid and I'm just like, is this really real? There's gotta be easier ways than doing this. And so I'm just jazzed to kind of go through what are some of the things we can do now before April 15th.   What are things that we can do even past April 15th to set us up for great success for 2026? So Alexis, this is your show. I'm just excited, kind of riffed us through it. Of course, I'm gonna geek out and ask probably about way more questions than you care to even be asked, but I'm really excited to learn more today.   Alexis Gallati (09:20) Yeah, great. Well, yeah, I hate to be a little bit of a Debbie Downer in the beginning and that when your past December 31st, ⁓ the number of tax strategies that are available to you are before you actually go to file your tax return are limited. It's just the nature of the code.   The Dental A Team (09:37) I agree. was super, when you were   like, what are the tech? I was like, I want to know because most of the times like when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, it's like game over and we start again. But yes, which is why I want to know what are like the small ones, but then also Alexis like, let's set our listeners up for like, what things can they do this year to be better prepared for it in conjunction? So yes, before April 15th, but selfishly I want to know what else can I do this year that maybe I haven't thought of.   Alexis Gallati (09:52) Yeah.   you   The Dental A Team (10:06) because the clock hasn't struck midnight in 2026. So like we've got time. So yeah, for 2025 filing, but also for 2026 as well.   Alexis Gallati (10:09) Yeah.   Yeah, so let's talk about 2025 filing first. Especially if you're a business owner, there are actually a number of things that you could still put together for yourself that can impact your 2025 financials. ⁓ So even basic things like if you haven't been taking advantage of your home office deduction or ⁓ vehicle expenses ⁓ and unreimbursed business expenses. So those are expenses that you paid   personally, but our business expenses. So all of those items, you can still go and report on your 2025 return. So if you haven't taken the time to sit down and say, how much should I pay in my home utilities or insurance, repairs, et cetera, and take the percentage. So let's say your home office is 7%.   of your total square footage of your home. Well, then you can write off 7 % of your home expenses on your taxes. the treatment's a little bit different depending upon if you're a sole proprietorship or an S corporation. But in general, you still have that time to take advantage of that. And a lot of you might be like, oh, Alexis, it's such a little amount. I don't even know if it's worth it. Believe me.   All these little things can really add up together. And easily, I usually see between $10,000 to $20,000 of really ⁓ easy to grab savings for yourself if you just take even a few hours to gather all the information. ⁓ And you can even use ⁓ personal financial apps like Monarch Money or You Need a Budget, things like that to help.   organize that information for you throughout the year so it's a little more automated.   The Dental A Team (12:10) Yeah, that's amazing. I do love the YNAB. You're throwing me back to like pharmacy school days of you need a budget. I was like, oh my gosh, got to answer this every time. They have updated so much, but I love that you said like 10 to 20 grand, I think is worthwhile, but more than it being pennies or dollars, I think it's the discipline of having it prepared for next year too. So that way we don't, I think it's like, well, it might not be enough this year, but I'm like, you take that this year and we compound over the next year and the next year and the next year. I think these little things to me at least,   Alexis Gallati (12:15) Ha ha ha.   The Dental A Team (12:41) Like I said, it's their game of monopoly. And I'm like, okay, maybe I didn't get it that time, but I'm going to take that rule and I'm going to apply it this year and the next year and the next year. So I'm even taking notes over here, guys. So Alexis, if you see me, I'm writing it like, okay, I'm going to check in on that, check in on that. So make sure, make sure that they're being taken into consideration because I don't prep my own taxes. I don't even know half the stuff. Like they just tell me. So I also think being a good steward as well and always double checking your CPA to make sure like, are we maximizing every deduction we can?   Alexis Gallati (12:53) Good, I like it.   Of course.   Yeah. And being proactive is like you said, the number one thing because the IRS can deny deduction if you don't have that itemized receipt or you don't have the proper documentation. And 99 % of any fight with the IRS is that documentation. And I did a three year fellowship in IRS representation. So I'm obviously very focused on that tax savings, but also very focused on making sure   that everything's set up properly. So if the IRS were to challenge it or even the state, you're in good hands. then that way, you can just give them the stuff and say, go away.   The Dental A Team (13:51) Exactly. And I heard somebody once tell me, they're like, Kiera, it's not a matter of if I'll be audited, it's when. Like every business will most likely be audited at some point. I hope and pray like we're not. I think about that a lot of like cross my T's, dot my I's, make sure that I'm constantly trying to be compliant with things. But your wealth of knowledge on that Alexis of what things and how to become, I mean, shoot three years of IRS. Girl, you got my vote. That's impressive. And like love the love the authority piece that you're bringing to our podcast today.   Alexis Gallati (14:20) Thank you. Thank you. So some other things that you're able to do before you file that tax return, and this is a big one, is retirement. So you actually have until the filing of a tax return, and that includes extensions. So for example, if you're an S corporation or a partnership, have the original due date, which is March 15th, or the extended due date, which is September 15th, to go and   open and fund that retirement plan. So if you have employees, it can get obviously a little bit more complicated, but you still are able to do it and ⁓ do that employer contribution. And that's obviously really one of the lower hanging fruits when it comes to not only tax savings, but also wealth generation.   The Dental A Team (15:12) Yeah, no, I love that. That's a great idea. And I think a lot of people miss that. And again, CPAs, tax strategists, wealth advisors, they're all playing in their own lanes, but how can we make sure all of them are maximizing together? Because you as a human are trying to build that wealth. So I love that.   Alexis Gallati (15:30) Yeah. And don't forget as well, you know, kind of in the same vein as retirement is that health savings account. So if you had a high deductible plan throughout the year, but maybe your employer didn't actually provide a ⁓ health savings account, like so if you're a W-2, for example, or even if you're self-employed, you can still go open up your   own Health Savings account through, I think Fidelity has some, ⁓ Optum Bank, HSA Bank. So there's a whole bunch of different providers out there. can just Google and find the provider that works best for you.   The Dental A Team (16:07) Interesting. And I know like I just wrote that down because a lot of dentists don't have HSA. Like we are the providers for it. But hearing that that might even be a resource to attract people into your business if you were able to like, don't necessarily provide it, but these are some companies that we could help our employees get if they wanted to have an HSA because I know that that's something that my husband works at a hospital. So there's an HSA there, but as sole proprietors and S-Corps, a lot of times they aren't provided. That's actually really like, I think just a great tool and resource to   possibly provide to our employees, depending upon what it looks like for your business.   Alexis Gallati (16:40) Yeah, definitely. And then one other thing that you ⁓ may be able to do, depending upon your state, ⁓ to help with state taxes, is go and contribute to a 529 plan, which is for education for yourself or other dependent. And some states like Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, there's a number of them. They allow you to make that contribution all the way up to the   filing of the tax return.   The Dental A Team (17:13) Interesting. I did not know that I wrote that down. That's fascinating. I love this. This is like so fun. Keep going.   Alexis Gallati (17:20) Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, is, a good, especially for, you know, higher earners. ⁓ that's kind of a good summary of what you can be doing before this, ⁓ April 15th or even the extended due date as well. ⁓ but when you start looking into 2026, who, that book, that book opens up, there is.   The Dental A Team (17:39) It does, right? It's like the   monopoly Bible. Like it's so big. Like how do I play the game of taxes? So I truly, and I think like for all the listeners, like the home office, the HSA, ⁓ retirement, the 529 plan, like there's still time. So go look at those things. And even if you can't contribute or do those things now, having that set up for next year, like, Alexis, truly, I'm like, I'm getting the popcorn. I'm getting my notepad. Like,   I am so excited because half these things I haven't heard of. And so it's very fun to just hear different perspectives. And I do love that you've got a legal background too. I love that you're in IRS. I love that you're in medicine and healthcare and like for your own personal savings too. It's like you're the Nancy Drew of like, how can I do the most amount through all of this? It's a very fascinating perspective you bring today.   Alexis Gallati (18:27) thank you. I appreciate that. yeah, when obviously when you are a W-2 employee still that your options are not as open for those that have a business. But ⁓ besides obviously retirement HSA that you can do all year, one thing that a lot of W-2 employees forget is to actually check with your employer to see what their reimbursement policy looks like.   The Dental A Team (18:29) course.   Alexis Gallati (18:55) because if you're maybe in a private practice with a large group, and I mean, these could even be groups that have sometimes hundreds of physicians in it, or even if it's just a hospital system, they'll have actually pretty generous reimbursement policies for things like your CME, your new loops, or going and   doing your mileage in between different hospitals or clinics, things like that. So making sure that you are keeping track of those things. Obviously, if you're a business owner, you definitely want to keep track of those. But some of my favorite for those that own their own practices, my absolute favorite is hiring your kids.   The Dental A Team (19:36) Of course, yeah.   Alexis Gallati (19:48) It seems so basic, but believe me, there are definitely steps in place that have to be done in order to make sure they ⁓ qualify. for me, the ⁓ court tested age is seven. So I usually don't recommend my clients going and hiring their kids until they're at least that age. You can do it younger, but the old my kids are models strategy is kind of ⁓ antiquated now just because ⁓   everybody has these great cameras now on their phones. And so it's kind of devalued, being a model ⁓ for those that aren't professionals basically. ⁓ But that's a really great way to shift income from your higher tax bracket down to their non-existent tax bracket.   The Dental A Team (20:21) Totally.   Right?   Alexis Gallati (20:40) and you can then put that money into a Roth IRA for them. And if you do that, let's say over like a 10 year period in 2026, that amount is 7,500 is the max you can put in. They're easily, by the time they're age 65, gonna have at least 2 million plus dollars in savings. So it's a really great way to create a legacy for your kids and give them a little headstart.   The Dental A Team (20:48) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, that's amazing. And I think so many people are like, I don't know how to help my kids with college or different things like that. And it's like, these are great ways to prepare them for the future for when they retire for things like that. I mean, how awesome I know a couple of ⁓ doctors because   The bulk of our audience, Alexis, are not W-2 earners. They are self-employed, like dental practice owners. ⁓ But I know that there were several that didn't tell their kids that they had done this for them. And then the surprise when they graduated college of, we've been putting this into place for you. I mean, shoot, that money's going to go to the government or to your kids. Why not invest in your children? You're going to pay that money regardless. So ⁓ definitely think that that's such a brilliant idea. And I've heard people, they're like,   their real job, like they have to have a real job. They're like a paper shredder. Like they like literally shred the paper or they open the mail or they like pick out the cards or they pick out the toys for the prize boxes, like actual legit jobs that they employ them for. But I think what an amazing gift and legacy to give your kids as well.   Alexis Gallati (21:51) they   Yeah, exactly. All four of my children are, obviously cerebral isn't a dental practice, but they're hired through cerebral. So that way they are earning enough to put that money into their Roth IRA. ⁓ And a lot of ⁓ my clients are like, man, I don't know what my kids can do. And like you said, there's a lot of admin work that they can do. Even a seven-year-old can.   like you said, shred paper, stamp envelopes. They can help with doing their ABCs and filing things away if you're an older ⁓ practice owner and they have ⁓ still the paper file system. ⁓ yeah, it really is a wonderful way to not only teach responsibility, but also to save. ⁓ I highly recommend ⁓ doing that. And even if you have parents that you financially support, you could even   The Dental A Team (22:45) Yeah.   Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (23:02) go and hire your parents through your practice ⁓ and write off their support. Of course, again, they need to also have a legitimate job in the business. with parents, you have to be careful if they have any benefits like social security or Medicare. Then you just want to make sure that you're not pushing them out of those benefits because of their income ⁓ or making any part of their social security taxable. So that takes a little bit more. ⁓   finesse than hiring a child.   The Dental A Team (23:36) No, that's great. That's a really good idea too, because I hadn't thought about parents. I have heard about children, but you're right, parents are retired. And if there's ways that you can support and give back rather than like, again, I love the government. I am happy to pay taxes, but if there's ways that I can support my own family, ⁓ I think it's great because I'm going to pay that money anyway, but paying it to people that I love and care about is really a great idea.   Alexis Gallati (24:00) Yeah. Another popular one I'm sure that you've seen on TikTok or other social media is the Augusta rule. ⁓ and this is where you're renting your home to your business. ⁓ and this is perfect example where documentation is absolutely critical. ⁓ but basically what happens is you rent your home to your business for 14 days or less. Those days do not have to be consecutive and your business gets to   The Dental A Team (24:07) Mm-hmm.   Alexis Gallati (24:28) right off the cost of that rent. So obviously lowers your taxes. But then you as the individual do not have to pay tax on that rental income. Now, if you do it for 15 days and you've ruined the strategy and you have to pay tax on all 15 days. So that's really important you do 14 days or less. But this is again a really great way if you have monthly board meetings, that's 12 days right there.   Or if you have employee parties, if you have colleagues over in discussing business, though, as long as you have a rental agreement in place between yourself and your business, and you document through meeting minutes everything that occurred during that event, then that is the documentation that the IRS would need in order to substantiate that.   strategy. And obviously a reasonable rental rate as well.   The Dental A Team (25:27) Yeah, no, didn't realize,   I did not realize that you needed a rental agreement. Can you expand more on that? like we check all the Airbnb's and the VRBO's in the area to see what does our house actually go for and like keep that documented every single year and then have an actual agenda and like have it in the calendar. So it's in our Google calendar. It's got an agenda. It's got a PDF didn't attach. But how does the rental agreement work? like, yeah, how do you, I didn't realize that that was a necessary piece to it.   Alexis Gallati (25:57) Yeah, so you can even just use ChatGPT to create it. ⁓ But essentially what you do is it's just that agreement between the business and personal. So ⁓ you just want to think about it like any other rental that you would do. If you were to go to a conference room in a hotel, for example, or go rent that Airbnb, you're going to be signing some sort of agreement saying that this can happen.   that this event can happen on this date. ⁓ you can either do one agreement for the entire year, spelling out like, here are the days that we're going to be doing these things, ⁓ or you can have an agreement for each time that it happens.   The Dental A Team (26:43) Very cool. That's super helpful. Yeah, I do love the addresses for all anything people. And I mean, I've had CPAs and like, don't go crazy. Like that's where I say like check Airbnb, check VRBO like what you think your house is worth versus what market value says your house is worth. Like, let's make sure that we are accurate on that. But yeah, that's definitely an amazing one that I think is great for offices to surely do.   Alexis Gallati (26:51) Yes.   Yep. Go and get two to three comps. So then that way can just take an average. I feel like that's a very safe way to, ⁓ show reasonableness. You're not just like, Hey, I'm taking the highest one on the block. You know, it's taking a few of them.   The Dental A Team (27:21) Totally. No, definitely agree. I love that. Okay, Alexis, what other ideas? know we're, I'm like just like sitting here. I'm like, I love this writing it down. Great ideas. What are some of the ones that like, yeah, anything else that's going to save us? Um, because like taxes are taxes and we are going to pay them, but like, what else can we do to, like you said, Bill Gates or, um, like Warren Buffett, what are the things that you found for like these higher net worth earners? Like, do they need to get into real estate and like use the big, beautiful tax bill or like,   Alexis Gallati (27:23) Yeah.   Okay.   The Dental A Team (27:50) anything else that you've seen that like really moves the noodles or is like, no, just the small consistent things are really going to help them out.   Alexis Gallati (27:57) Yes, well, they all help out. ⁓ But if you are looking for more of that, hey, Alexis, what's like Hail Mary that I can be doing to act to really save? ⁓ You can look at real estate. ⁓ That could be a whole podcast by itself. ⁓ But in general, you you tend to ⁓ get into real estate when you're not talking about like reets or things I can do through the stock market.   The Dental A Team (28:14) Right.   Alexis Gallati (28:26) ⁓ You're either doing like real estate syndications, ⁓ direct ownership, like long-term rentals or short-term rentals. And ⁓ each of those are treated differently and have different ways of making that ⁓ a tax deduction for yourself. So when it comes to, in general, ⁓ real estate syndications, this is where you're   The Dental A Team (28:49) Mm-hmm.   Alexis Gallati (28:54) buying into a partnership that maybe owns an office building. And you go in with other partners and ⁓ it's syndicated. So it's very passive. There's no way for you to write off any losses in that current year. ⁓ When it comes to direct ownership, the IRS basically says, hey, that real estate is considered passive unless you have real estate professional status or you do that short-term rental   deduction or excuse me, short-term rental exclusion. And so what ⁓ happens if you can qualify for the short-term rental exclusion or real estate professional status is that those what would have been passive losses that you can't use against your current income will be considered active losses. And then you can use it against your   active income, when I say active income, things like your W-2 or your business. So you're getting a current year deduction from that. And you can do cost segregation study to help accelerate depreciation. ⁓ So this is very, very much in the nutshell sort of explanation. ⁓ But it can really be a great way to lower your taxes if   The Dental A Team (29:57) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (30:16) you essentially want a second job. Just know that real estate is not as passive as the social media gurus go and ⁓ try to glamorize. It really does take a lot of extra work. You want to make sure that you are following the rules properly so that you can get that tax benefit in the current year. ⁓ But if you   The Dental A Team (30:19) Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (30:41) do have that prerogative and you want to learn and get do things properly, then it can really save you quite a bit of money.   The Dental A Team (30:48) Yeah. Are there any other things, Alexis, that are like real estate that save that much but don't require that much work? I'm asking you for the weight loss drug of taxes, please. What's our easiest way with the most amount of bang for buck that you've seen? These are the big hits that if you want, because agreed, real estate's great. If you do that short-term thing, but it is a lot of work. With the big, beautiful tax bill that came through, that 100 % depreciation is pretty fantastic. But like you said,   Alexis Gallati (30:54) Yes.   Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (31:17) got to have it rented out, you got to have the pieces, you got to like reno it like there are and you have to have it done by the end of the year and like it's a stressful zone. ⁓ So are there other things that you've seen that might be like 50 or 100 or 200,000 off taxes that aren't necessary real estate? The Augustus one, yes. Like paying people, there's things but is there anything else you've found that are like some of those bigger chunks that maybe people don't think about they don't recognize? Yes of course they're going to take a little bit more work but...   Alexis Gallati (31:17) You gotta work for it.   The Dental A Team (31:45) that you found that could be benefits to our audience.   Alexis Gallati (31:48) OK, so let's talk about my Hail Mary for tax savings. I   love this one towards the end of the year because you're going to want to know, have a good idea of where your tax situation is going to end up. So I use this a lot for year end planning. And this is oil and gas. When you ⁓ invest in oil and gas, again, just like with real estate, there's a lot of different options.   But my favorite is our drilling funds and this is where you invest in a partnership that owns oil and gas wells and these this allows you in that first year to Essentially write off usually somewhere between 80 to 95 percent of the investment that you've put in So let's say you invest a hundred thousand dollars Then you're getting about and let's say conservatively an eighty thousand dollar deduction that can go a   against your ordinary income. So if you're W2 or your business. usually, a good rule of thumb is that, let's say, if you're putting in $100,000, you're saving $30,000 in tax. You're putting in $200,000, you're saving $60,000 in tax. And then after year one, you're earning overall, during the life of the investment, about a 2x   The Dental A Team (33:10) Bye.   Alexis Gallati (33:11) you put   100,000, you're getting about 200,000 back. And so it's considered a very conservative investment. And just because the length of the investment, and this is one of the cons of it, is that it's usually about a 10 to 12 year period. So it's generally only about a 7 % return on investment over the life of the investment. the great thing about it is that   you let's say if you did put in that hundred thousand, you're getting that 30,000 in savings, and then you can go put that into something else that will earn you even more money. So then this is something that you can do every single year. And, you know, just depends on how much money you want to save and so that how much you put in for that investment.   The Dental A Team (33:57) Gosh, that's such a good one. And these are things of like just fun, like tips and topics. Like I said, it's the rules of monopoly. I caught like, how do we play tax strategy better? Alexis, what are any like resources? I feel like you guys have some resources. Like I feel the world of tax is so daunting. And so it's like, we hear from podcasts and we hear snippets and we see TikTok and it's like real estate games. like, where do people go if they like want to dig a little bit deeper and really become like more tax expert and more tax savvy and.   like tax strategy, like what are any resources you found or ways for people just to become a little bit more literate in the tax world.   Alexis Gallati (34:33) Yes, so ⁓ of course I'm to do a little shameful plug. My book, The ⁓ Advanced Tax Strategies for Medical Professionals, it's really just that it's a brain dump of all different types of strategies, whether it's for your business or W-2 only, charitable, these alternative investments. And so it's really a space.   The Dental A Team (34:36) as you should.   Alexis Gallati (34:58) for readers to learn more about their options. So then that was the way they can go online and do more research or bring it to their current advisor. So, you know, it's just about opening those possibilities. Otherwise, you know, one resource that is really great for especially medical professionals is the White Coat Investor that Dr. Dali, he has a wonderful, wonderful site and he puts out really good material.   The Dental A Team (35:11) Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (35:25) when it comes to not only taxes, but also for ⁓ just finances in general. And then, of course, on ⁓ CerebralTaxAdvisors.com, our website has wonderful ⁓ material that I put out all the time. There's lots of goodies there, as well as ⁓ different resources and worksheets and stuff like that.   The Dental A Team (35:52) Yeah, no, that's super helpful.   But Alexis, what do you find ⁓ as you go through this? Like one, how often are you meeting with your clients? Because I feel like so many CPAs and tax strategists meet with them in like December 1st and they're like, hey, you owe this much money. Is that how you guys plan? Like how should tax planning actually work?   or is that normal? Like I'm just trying to find a vibe of how this should work in the industry.   Alexis Gallati (36:15) Yeah.   Yeah. So when a medical professional first starts working with us, I design a tax plan for them. And that's really critical because right then and there, OK, what can we be doing to dramatically lower your taxes, legally, of course, and set you up for success? And then we meet with our clients at minimum twice a year. So we do a mid-year tax projection and a year-end tax projection.   The Dental A Team (36:34) course.   Alexis Gallati (36:45) And especially with medical professionals, your income is so variable throughout the year, depending upon insurance reimbursements or seasonality and things like that. And so we really want to make sure that we have a good, clear understanding, good six plus months in advance. Hey, what are you going to be owing tax wise? What does cash flow look like? What quarterly estimated payments do you need to make?   All of these things should not be a surprise. So that's why when I built Cerebral in the packages we have, I was really focused around how do we eliminate those surprises.   The Dental A Team (37:23) Yeah, no, I love that. that's super helpful because I feel like so many just wait till December and it's like, no, like there's things I could have been doing and if I would have known. So that's super helpful. And then I think the other question is like, okay, you guys are tax strategy. Are you CPA? Are you bookkeeping? Like kind of differentiate. Are you in the financial advisor world? Like what specifically would we say I need you for XYZ, but I'm going to need these people again, like marketing, right? Like what facet of my wealth management are you?   and who do I need paired with you?   Alexis Gallati (37:54) Yep, so we are your tax compliance, tax planning, your bookkeeping, and CFO services, and also business advising as well. So we're able to set up entities for you ⁓ as well as provide ⁓ just a lot of the years and years of experience that we have in running businesses and seeing different types of practices, et cetera. ⁓ We are not investment advisors, so we won't   say, buy Coca-Cola versus Pepsi. But we will introduce you to different investments that have tax benefits. And one very unique quality of Cerebral that's very different from other firms is that we do not take any commissions or kickbacks on any strategies we recommend or vendors we recommend. And we don't sell any products. So we're very education-based. I'm very focused on   you understanding your options so you can make a educated decision on what you want to move forward with. And then we are a white glove done for you firm that will implement those strategies on your behalf and make sure they're reported properly on your tax returns. Because that's what we've found being in this industry, especially specializing in medical professionals, is there's a lot of people out there that know about these strategies.   but they do not know how to implement them properly. And that honestly is 80 % of the fight when it comes to doing any of these strategies.   The Dental A Team (39:26) Yeah, no, that's incredible. So, and again, this is just like naiveness on my side. Do I need a CPA or are you guys the replacement of a CPA?   Alexis Gallati (39:35) Yeah, we're the replacement of CPA. We are CPAs. We are EAs. So we are taking care of your tax preparation, so personal and business. We do it all. I try to keep these packages as comprehensive as possible because I hate being nickel and dined. communication's a top priority for us. And so we don't want our clients to hesitate whatsoever to connect with us. And so that's why we don't.   The Dental A Team (39:56) Totally.   Amazing.   Alexis Gallati (40:05) shot like I, my gosh, I just got like a bill from my attorney the other day and it was for stuff that I talked to him about like in August. I'm like, I hate those pop-up bills. So that's yeah, that's, why I try to make it as comprehensive as possible.   The Dental A Team (40:10) Yep.   Right.   Awesome.   No, that's fantastic. That's really helpful. And I know a lot of people are very nervous to switch from their CPA. CPAs, feel like we're so embedded and we trust them with our souls. Truly, I see this. ⁓ So is there complementary calls we have with you? how do we start with that? Because I know, honestly, untangling from a CPA is such a pain. It is so annoying. so ⁓ how does that process work if people want to work with you, Alexis?   Alexis Gallati (40:46) So the best thing you can do is go to our website and go to the contact page. And you will ⁓ go through a very quick questionnaire to make sure that you're a good fit for us, because we also want to make sure we're a good fit for you. And we will ⁓ have a tax discovery session. And during that session, we will. We'll talk about what your needs are and what it's like to work with us. ⁓ I'm very focused on that return on investment. We actually have a guarantee.   with the design of our plans that I will save you at least two times what you pay us in ⁓ tax savings or you get the plan for free. And on average, our clients actually achieve 4.5 multiple with the design of our plans. So again, it doesn't make sense for us to work together if I can't save you more than what you're paying us.   The Dental A Team (41:39) That's amazing. No, that's incredible. And that's a great guarantee. And ⁓ then let's say hypothetical, we do get audited. How often do you guys go through audits and like success rate? Like I'm imagining if you were three years in IRS, you're probably pretty fantastic at that. But these are always things that I'm just curious. Like how does that work? And how often are your clients audited? And like, how is your success rate on that? And if you don't want to share this, I hope you do. We're just going to go for it. Like, yeah, I'm just going to ask the weird questions. Why not?   Alexis Gallati (42:01) Yeah.   I love the weird questions. They're the best. So yeah, that's one thing I can never guarantee that you won't be audited because of course there are always random audits that happen. We've only had three audits since I started Cerebral over 10 years ago. In 2014, I started Cerebral. ⁓ And ⁓ one of them was for the mortgage interest deduction. there's a limitation in that.   The Dental A Team (42:18) It's incredible.   Alexis Gallati (42:28) Um, and that was just, unfortunately, a client had not provided the correct information. And so we were easily able to just change it and be on our way. Um, and then another two were regarding actually real estate professional status. And that was just New York state saying, Hey, like we don't, we don't think that you're actually qualified for this. we're like, Oh, yeah, we do. Here's the paperwork. And they're like, Oh, okay. See you later. So yeah.   The Dental A Team (42:50) Yeah.   That's amazing.   That's a huge thing. And I'm so glad I asked the question because I think for me, that's something I'm curious on of like, I get it. Like you said, you can't guarantee that, but as long as you back in, do you guys charge extra for those audits or is that part of the plan? Like, nope, we stand behind it. Like, how does that work? Cause I know there's some firms that I have chatted with and if we do get audited, it's like 375 an hour for the audit. And I'm like, okay, like I'll just plan for that. But how does that work for you guys?   Alexis Gallati (43:18) Yep, so we back up all of our work and all of our packages. If you do receive a notice for anything that we prepare, you send it to us and we help you take care of it. So yeah, we 100 % back up our work. If you come start working with us and you have some a notice from a year that we didn't handle, like we didn't prepare, we'll still help you handle it. But that would be just.   at our hourly rate, depending upon the extensiveness of the notice. But to go back to your original question about making that change, I 100 % get it, especially if you've been with somebody for so long. And so you just have to look at that cost benefit and see, hey, staying with this person, how much is that costing me in tax savings versus   The Dental A Team (44:01) Right.   Alexis Gallati (44:12) going with somebody like cerebral and we try to go and make that process as seamless as possible when it comes to getting ⁓ up to date in your history and then ⁓ getting access to your bookkeeping and getting your tax returns. ⁓ And so, because I completely understand it can be daunting, but. ⁓   Happy to have a conversation around it when we meet about the discovery session and to see if it's something you'd want to move forward with.   The Dental A Team (44:43) Amazing. Alexis, has been such a great podcast and I just love meeting great individuals. I love how much you have a passion for the law and for the tax wealth and it's your own life and your own livelihood. So if people want to reach out, I know you said it before, how do they connect with you? So yeah, they can get started if they're interested.   Alexis Gallati (45:01) Yeah. So you can Google us or just go to CerebralTaxAdvisors.com. And which by the way, the reason why I have cerebral is because my husband is a private practice neurosurgeon and my dad's a retired private practice neurologist. hence cerebral in the brain. So if y'all can remember. But yeah, so CerebralTaxAdvisors.com is the best way to get a hold of us.   The Dental A Team (45:14) There you go.   I love it. Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (45:27) ⁓ And I look forward to potentially talking with y'all.   The Dental A Team (45:32) Well, Alexis, thank you so much for this. And for all of you listening, I hope you take advantage between now and April 15th. I hope you just like have a conversation. I'm always pro. I love CPAs. My CPA listens to this podcast and I'm always interested in meeting new people like Alexis, chatting with them. Are there different ways that they can benefit me? Because yes, I love my CPA, but I love more than that saving money and learning new strategies that maybe I didn't know about. So Alexis, I really hope a lot of them reach out to you, connect with you and for   All of you listening, thank you for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

One company is tracking every football at the Super Bowl… And it's a publicly-traded stock.Elon Musk is merging SpaceX and Xai… It's a sugardaddy acquisition.Pepsi is cutting prices on Dorito's and all snacks by 15%... It's inspired by Greek mythology.Plus, the surprise car trend? Minivans… Driven by 40-year-old Millennial dads.$ZBRA $PEP $XXXX Buy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYAustin, TX (2/25): SOLD OUTArlington, VA (3/11): https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/341317 New York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Missouri man allegedly threatened to kill someone because he was denied access to a soft drink, proving that brand loyalty can be taken too far.READ or SHARE: https://weirddarkness.com/pepsi-murder-threatWeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.#WeirdDarkness #WeirdDarkNEWS #TrueCrime #BizarreCrime #StrangeNews #MissouriCrime #Pepsi #MurderThreat #StalkingArrest #WeirdNews

Episode 772: Neal and Toby dive into the grumblings of a deal gone cold between OpenAI and Nvidia. Next, PepsiCo is trying to coax back shoppers by slashing the prices of its popular snacks. Also, PayPal's wilting profits behind its competitors has prompted for a CEO change. Meanwhile, Rome implements a fee to its famed Trevi Fountain to curb its overtourism. And, Walmart crosses $1 trillion dollars in market cap. Get your tickets for the Morning Brew Variety Show! https://tinyurl.com/MBvariety  Learn more about Sandals at sandals.com  Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Gerard joins Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme on The Smylie Show for a conversation covering everything from finding Mauritius on a map so he could earn a Masters invite, to his lack of a dining room table

56 million American adults are expected to watch the Winter Olympics! Jill Biden's ex-husband was charged with murdering his current wife. Pepsi announced they will cut their chip prices by 15% for the Super Bowl!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, legendary Christian rapper Trip Lee tells us about his unexpected move into worship music with his new album. Before that, the crew swaps stories from last week's historic winter storm—Emily survived three days without power in freezing temps and Jesse narrowly avoided going to a fun Orlando Magic game with Cameron.In RELEVANT Buzz, we break down Jelly Roll's powerful Grammy acceptance moment, plus the youngest Grammy winner at just eight years old. We also dive into new research showing the vast majority of people want authentic faith representation in TV and movies, and then Emily previews two interesting new shows: Jury Duty Season 2's unexpected premise and Neighbors, HBO and A24's reality series about strangers forced to live together.Plus, Jesse announces his new podcast Target Intelligence: Psyop and Derek plugs his brand-new show, You Can't Say That in Church. Jesse of course brings his most rewatched video of the week: a Medieval Combat League warrior armed with a real axe who keeps targeting opponents from behind with hilarious headshots. Then in SLICES we cover Miami's iguana apocalypse—dinosaurs falling from trees as residents collect them by the armload (and definitely aren't disposing of them properly).And to close it out, it's Super Bowl week, so we're playing a special edition of "One Has to Go" covering everything from iconic Super Bowl commercials and halftime show moments to game-day snacks and controversial performances. Spoiler: mozzarella sticks do not survive Jesse's hot take.Highlights:00:00 — Intro & Winter Storm Survival Stories07:43 — RELEVANT Buzz08:00 — Jelly Roll's Powerful Grammy Acceptance Speech11:27 — Eight-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Grammy Winner in History12:33 — New Study: 92% of Viewers Want Authentic Faith in TV & Movies16:37 — Jury Duty Season 2 Preview: Hot Sauce Company Chaos18:00 — Neighbors: HBO and A24's New Reality Series24:00 — Medieval Combat League Axe Warrior Goes Viral31:09 — Trip Lee 32:00 — Why Trip Lee Made a Worship Album After Years in Hip-Hop35:00 — Trip Lee on Being a Teaching Pastor and Collaborating With Worship Leaders37:00 — SLICES: Miami's Iguana Apocalypse43:30 — Super Bowl Edition: "One Has to Go" Game45:53 — Iconic Super Bowl Commercials (Doritos, Tide, QR Code)46:21 — Controversial Super Bowl Ads (GoDaddy, Carl's Jr., Axe)47:04 — Super Bowl Snacks Face-Off (Doritos, Lay's, Pringles)47:30 — Soda Showdown (Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew)48:00 — Jesse's Mozzarella Stick Hot Take Sparks Chaos49:31 — Halftime Show Showdown (Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Beyoncé)50:01 — Most Controversial Halftime Moments (Nipplegate, Dancing Sharks)50:52 — Halftime Props (JLo's Pole, Usher's Skates, Dr. Dre's Lowrider)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The CEO of Pepsi joins the show, first on CNBC. Reacting to earnings and giving his outlook for the consumer. Also weighing in on how immigration enforcement is impacting sales. Plus, PayPal stock getting crushed after disappointing earnings and the announcement of a new CEO. More on that turn-around effort. Then, many names in the private credit sector under pressure, we'll tell you why and the reason it's potentially spooking the entire market. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hour 1: Catherine O'Hara has passed away unexpectedly at 71. Her cause of death hasn't been reported, but her unique health condition and recent weight loss is curious. Macaulay Culkin, amongst her many other Hollywood children, are sharing heartfelt tributes. Demond Wilson, known as Lamont on the 70s sitcom ‘Sanford and Son,' has also passed away. Here's what Punxsutawney Phil is saying. Would you cut this guy's burger? Everybody's Nana just struck gold with an old crock pot. Hour 2: ‘Below Deck' is back today. Is Hollywood, the place, dying? Has the new age accessibility to music actually devalued it? Let's talk about the Grammys. Bad Bunny was the big winner of the night. Cher got a lifetime achievement award, and she also got… confused? Kendrick Lamar is now the most decorated rapper at the Grammys. Sabrina Carpenter angered PETA. There was a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, and Steven Spielberg is officially an EGOT. The ground is shaking this morning in the Bay. Listener Cindy is reporting live from the scene. Super Bowl week has begun here in San Francisco. The Milan Winter Olympics begin THIS FRIDAY! (51:39) Hour 3: ‘Today' show co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother is missing. Watch the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time tonight on CBS. Dunkin is shelling out the dough for this year's ad. Pepsi takes a shot at Coca-Cola. Hockey ticket sales are up - there's no wonder why. Well, there's gonna be a Chia Pet movie. San Francisco is star studded this week. California is the only state in the country that has the appropriate amount of water. Your good news story of the day… almost. (1:35:27) Hour 4: The worm is out, the itsy bitsy spider is in. Dolly Parton was collected by the authorities - but it's not what you think. Sarah's got your Grammy highlights. What's going on with Nate Bargatze? Vinnie's high school friends are watching us on YouTube! TSA is now charging $45 if you don't have a REAL ID. This school program teaches kids to fix up old cars - and then gives them away to single moms! (2:18:46)

‘Today' show co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother is missing. Watch the greatest Super Bowl commercials of all time tonight on CBS. Dunkin is shelling out the dough for this year's ad. Pepsi takes a shot at Coca-cola. Hockey ticket sales are up - there's no wonder why. Well, there's gonna be a Chia Pet movie. San Francisco is star studded this week. California is the only state in the country that has the appropriate amount of water. Your good news story of the day… almost.

Happy Groundhog Day! We kick off the episode by bracing ourselves for a "colossal" impending snowstorm. We discuss the chaos of grocery store panic buying (shoutout to the Delco guy who just wanted Pepsi), Mike's efforts to fix a generator, and Erin's irrational fear of trees "exploding" from the cold.In pop culture, Mike watches the pilot episodes of Severance and Pluribus, explain why Erin refuses to watch Stranger Things, and recount the secondhand embarrassment of filming a content ad while her entire family is trapped in the house. We also break down the viral success of the "Dr. Pepper is Good and Nice" TikTok lady, debating whether her estimated $10k-$50k payout was enough for a national TV spot.We then dive into the "tea" of the tennis world, discussing the drama between Naomi Osaka and her opponent (who gave her an "evil" look), involving a mid-match complaint to the umpire about "hindrance" screams and the hilarity of on-court tattle-telling. We also provide updates on the Craig Conover 10K challenge, celebrate Paralympian Dani Aravich's "A-List" status, and reveal the shocking $368 price tag of the Team USA closing ceremony sweater.Finally, we close the loop on years of fast-food lawsuits—revealing which brands paid out millions (GrubHub, Poppi, Beyond Meat) and which ones got away with "puffery" (McDonald's, Wendy's). To wrap up, we share some book recommendations (Anxious People, The Many Lives of Mama Love) and end with a wholesome "No Bad News" story about a man named Biggie Dave who posted about his free birthday cake on Threads and received thousands of replies.

The boys are in Vegas for Shot Show and our boy PewView is back to talk pew pews! Watch this episode ad-free and uncensored on Pepperbox! https://www.pepperbox.tv/ WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to Use AI for B2B Storytelling Without Losing Your Brand So many B2B companies and marketing teams waste budget on generic content that fails to resonate or support core business goals. In an era where AI-generated is everywhere, smaller B2B brands often struggle to maintain a unique identity while competing against larger firms with massive content engines. The key to staying relevant lies in a B2B brand’s ability to be authentic, human-centric, and strategically consistent despite the pressure to automate everything. So how can B2B brands effectively integrate AI into their marketing workflows without losing their unique voice and brand integrity? That's why we're talking to Nick Usborne (Founder, Story Aligned), who shared his expertise on leveraging AI through the lens of strategic storytelling. During our conversation, Nick discussed the critical distinction between simple narrative and a brand’s unique story, highlighting a significant gap where only 7% of top AI prompt libraries actually focus on storytelling. He shared actionable advice on building a “story vault,” training staff to avoid “brand drift,” and enforcing consistent AI usage to maintain the trust of the audience. Nick also underscored the importance of keeping human elements at the forefront of content creation to prevent AI from feeling overly mechanical, and advocated for a balanced approach that ensures scalable growth without sacrificing a brand's authenticity. https://youtu.be/dtgvg2-XXoU Topics discussed in episode: [02:53] The “Why” Behind AI Adoption: Why companies must embrace AI not just for efficiency, but to avoid being left behind by competitors who are already scaling their reach.  [04:10] The “Moat” of Storytelling: Why narrative and voice can be easily copied by AI, but your brand's unique “lived story” is the only defensible moat you have.  [11:27] Pitfalls of Inconsistent AI Use: The dangers of “shadow AI” use by employees (e.g., Using personal accounts vs. company custom GPTs) and how it leads to brand drift.  [16:46] The Human Element vs. AI: Nick explains why AI can describe the beach but can't “feel the sand between its toes,” and why human “messiness” is key to connection.  [24:26] Building a Story Vault: Nick provides a practical framework for formalizing your brand's folklore—from founder stories to customer service wins—so they can be systematically used in AI content.  [28:17] Actionable Steps for Marketers: Three immediate steps to take: build your story vault, interview key stakeholders (founders, early employees), and analyze customer service transcripts for sentiment.  [30:11] The Problem with “Killer Prompt” Libraries: Why copying “top 20 prompt” lists is a strategic mistake that leads to generic, non-differentiated content. Companies and links mentioned: Nick Usborne on LinkedIn  Story Aligned  Transcript Nick Usborne, Christian Klepp Nick Usborne  00:00 AI can do a wonderful job in many ways, but it’s never walked down the beach and felt the sand between its toes. It’s read about it. It’s never eaten ice cream. It’s read about that, but it’s never felt it. So that’s what I mean by lived experience. I think that content and stories that truly resonate with people you use those kind of touch points the the deeply human side of being alive. And like, say, I think AI can get close when you prompt it really well, but also, there’s a messiness that makes us recognize one another, the little mistakes we make. That’s what makes us human. We are messy. AI, it’s not very good at being messy. You can ask it to be messy, and it’ll try to figure that out, but it’s really not the same. And like I say, I think people are very sensitive to this kind of nuance. Christian Klepp  00:51 When brands rely on the same AI tools and prompts, they start to sound like everyone else. That loss of voice can hurt trust and lead to something called Brand drift. So how can B2B Marketing teams scale content with AI while staying true to their story? Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp, today, I’ll be talking to Nick Usborne, who will be answering this question. He’s the Founder of Story Aligned, a training program for Marketing teams that want to scale content using AI while protecting the integrity of their brand story and voice. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B Marketers Mission is. Mr. Nick Usborne, welcome to the show, sir.  Nick Usborne  01:32 Thank you very much. Thank you Christian. Thank you for having me.  Christian Klepp  01:35 Pleasure to have you on the show. Nick, you know we had such a fantastic pre interview call. It was a bit of a you did drop a few hints and clues about what was to come, and I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I’m going to keep the audience in suspense a little while longer as I move us into the first question. So off we go.  Nick Usborne  01:55 Okay. Christian Klepp  01:56 All right, so, Nick, you’re on a mission to equip Marketing teams to scale AI powered content while staying aligned with their organization, story and voice. So for this conversation, let’s focus on the topic of how to use AI for B2B content without losing trust. And it is at the time of the recording, the end of 2025 and of course, we’re going to talk about AI, but we’re going to zoom in on something specific as it pertains to B2B content and a little bit of branding in there as well. But I wanted to kick off this conversation with two questions, and I’m happy to repeat them. So the first question is, why do you believe it’s so important for brands and their Marketing teams to embrace AI so that they can scale? And the second question is, why does this approach require the right prompts and guardrails? I think that’s one thing that you mentioned in our previous conversation, the whole the whole piece about prompts and guardrails. Nick Usborne  02:53 Well, the first question, why do companies need to embrace AI? And the ridiculous answer to that. It’s not a good answer, but it’s true is that because everyone else is, because your competitors are, and they will create content at scale while you are not, and they will achieve reach that you can’t achieve without AI. And in fact, if they do it well, their content, their new content, will be very good, content deeply researched beyond perhaps what you can do. So it’s like everything within AI right now, like, like, Why? Why do all the companies like open AI and Google and Meta, why they all racing? Because if they don’t, someone else will get there first. And it’s, I’m not saying it’s a great reason, but I think it is the fundamental reason for companies to embrace AI, is that you will be left behind if you don’t. This is a transformational moment, and as much as we’d like to have choice, I think in this matter, we don’t have a lot of choice. So that’s my answer to that question. Repeat the second question for me. Christian Klepp  04:00 Absolutely, absolutely so based on, based on that, like, why does this approach require the right prompts and guardrails? Nick Usborne  04:10 As part of my business, I’m constantly researching this, and in particular, I’m researching the prompts people do so when say, could be writers coders, but in our world. Let’s say writers, principally, or marketers, are using AI. They’re using prompts, and they’re generally prompting about two things. One is narrative, like, what should we say? Or, you know, please write us a blog post about x. So that’s the that’s the topic, that’s the narrative. And then they’ll put in something say, oh, please do it in a voice that is authoritative and yet accessible. All right, so now that’s a voice. What they haven’t mentioned is what I think is the foundational layer, which is, which is story. And that’s important, because story is the only thing that is uniquely yours, if you have an narrative, if you, if you have voice, if you talk about something in a particular way, I can copy that with AI. I can copy it at scale. I can, I can look at the transcripts of Christian podcasts, and I can say, oh, I want to do one in exactly. Tell her the same topic. I can, you know, so when you focus on narrative, on what you write about in voice. I can copy it. There’s no moat. The only moat you have is with story, because every company’s story is unique. We can look at origin stories, foundation stories, we can look at customer stories through case studies, things like that. Those are always unique. No one else has Apple’s origin story. No one else has virgin Atlantic’s Founder’s story, etc. But we did some research recently. Actually, we did some research months ago, and I reconfirmed it earlier this week. I ran it. I ran it all again to look at the data. If you look at the top 20 prompt libraries that you know the big, trustworthy companies and organizations that put out prompt libraries for companies. If you look at the top 20 libraries and the 1000s and 1000s of prompts within there, 76% of those prompts are about the narrative. What to say? 17 are about voice. How do you sound? Only 7% relate to story. So this, to my mind, is where we have a problem. We have a disconnect. Everyone is going crazy, prompting for narrative and story, both of which have 0, zero mode, anyone can copy them at scale. And only 7% this very small percentage, are actually focusing on the one thing that is uniquely theirs and cannot be copied or challenged. So that when you say, when you, when you say I’m on a mission, that’s the mission for me to say, Hey guys, wake up. You’re You’re prompting the wrong things in the wrong way. Let’s like, go back and look at story Christian Klepp  07:12 Absolutely, absolutely. It almost sounds like an oxymoron to us to a certain degree, because you’re saying scaling B2B content using AI without losing trust. Because, you know, the narrative that I keep seeing on social media, particularly LinkedIn, is that if people are using AI, there is a bit of a trust factor there. But I think it’s to your point and correct me if I’m wrong, it’s being able to embrace AI and you leveraging it the right way, so it’s not, it’s not, it’s not to replace, it’s not to replace the writers, right, or to replace the Marketers, I hope not. Nick Usborne  07:50 It may replace some. But, yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, you’re right, and the keyword you mentioned there is trust. I think, I think trust is going to be the most valuable commodity that a company can have in the months and years to come, because people don’t actually don’t if we’re talking about brand. So we’re trying to protect brand with story, right? And brand is something that a lot of companies have spent millions of dollars building and protecting over years or decades and well, one of the things let me come back to trust in a moment. But if I’m looking at brand, and I’m looking at all the stuff goes out there, it either builds brand or it burns brand. And if you burn brand, you lose trust. So if you’re going out with a whole bunch of content that sounds like everyone else is that it’s kind of meh. It’s ordinary. It’s in the middle, which is what AI is really good at. Without the right prompting, it will give you kind of in the middle, mediocre output. So you got to be much better at prompting than just like a, I don’t know, being careless about it, or taking a shortcut, shortcuts, or being lazy about it, because then you get brand drift, and all of a sudden the brand doesn’t sound quite right. And when that happens, you lose trust. And when you lose trust, you lose revenue. I mean, you really do. And people are getting very sensitive to brand of brand trust we saw recently. Was it tracker barrel tried to just change its logo. People freaked out. People freaked out.  Christian Klepp  09:27 It was an awful rebrand, but, yes.  Nick Usborne  09:30 Yeah, but it wasn’t. These weren’t. These weren’t. Saying is, I don’t think the design is up to snuff. It’s like, don’t mess with my tracker barrel. We actually feel very strongly about the brands. Talk to people who are absolute fans of Apple. Doesn’t matter that it costs twice as much, perhaps as not quite as good. It’s Apple. It’s my brand. Don’t mess with my brand. So we’re very sensitive to our loyalty to brands. And in fact, in some sense, it’s brand define us like a football team, a baseball team, in part, we can be defined by the brands that we support, local, Pepsi. You know, it’s like everywhere. So when a company uses AI carelessly at scale and all of a sudden that blog post, it kind of sounds like them, but something’s a tiny bit off. And then that LinkedIn update. Again, yeah, it’s them, but again, it’s, did I say is that the same as they were six months ago? You get the you get these little these little things that sound off, and now you get brand drift. And now you get people feeling uneasy, and the public are sometimes we think we can just make the public believe whatever we want them to believe, or companies to believe whatever we want them to believe, but actually, individuals, in their home lives and in their business lives are very, very sensitive to brand and they’re very, very sensitive to voice and what they hear, and if it’s off, they really don’t like it, and that does translate into loss of trust, and that does directly translate into loss of revenue.  Christian Klepp  11:07 Absolutely. I’m going to move us on to the next set of questions, particularly that one pertaining to key pitfalls that Marketers need to avoid when they’re trying to scale their B2B content using AI without losing trust. So what are some of these key pitfalls they should avoid, and what should they be doing instead? Nick Usborne  11:27 What I’m hearing from inside a number of companies is that there is an inconsistency in how people are using AI and even when systems are in place, that not everyone follows the system. So it’s early days. It is. These are messy times for, you know, working with AI within companies. So I think it’s really important that companies do have some frameworks in place, that people within the organization are using the same tools in the same way, and that they are encouraged to be consistent in what they do. So I’ve heard stories of where companies are set up, you know, they’re using Copilot, or whatever they use, and then some of the manager will walk by someone’s desk, and they’re actually, actually, they’re using Claude on their phone. That person like phone, and it’s like, well, yeah, but no, this is now, you know, you have no control. You also have to get people to do what they ask. I was talking to a Founder the other day. She has a PR (Public Relations) company, plenty of clients, and she’s smart. She’s created custom GPTs for each client. So each custom GPT is trained on with with a kind of database of information on that client and the content, so that you know when you when you ask it to do something else, it’s already has the context and the voice instructions and everything, and you can and it’s great, you get this consistency. But she says, what’s happening is some of her employees come in in the morning, they start work on client X, and they’re using that custom GPT. Then they move on to client Y, but they keep using the original custom GPT and not switching out. So the management has put in the structure in place to be consistent and to output the best, you know, the best content, but the employees are not always playing game, you know, going along with that. So so I do think we’re in a messy period now where companies are not entirely sure how to apply this, how to structure it, what kind of frameworks and guidance to put in place. What guardrails to put in place? Like? Again, I’ve heard horror stories of people grabbing content that should not be shared and putting it into a large language model and then turning that into customer facing or public facing content.  Christian Klepp  13:57 Oh, plagiarism.  Nick Usborne  14:04 So yeah, it is messy. So what I would say is, before you even try to make the best of the use of AI that you do, need to put systems and frameworks in place and educate your staff. So if you want your staff to use AI effectively give them access to training. Don’t just throw them at a tool and say, go for it, because they won’t know what to do with it, or they’ll be able to create stuff, but they won’t be able to create good stuff. So invest in the systems, invest in the frameworks and instructions, and invest in training for the people who are going to be using the tools.  Christian Klepp  14:46 Definitely some relevant points. I wanted to go back to something you said, though, because I think it’s really important. It’s certainly one thing to have the prompts and the guardrails in place and some kind of like, framework and structures. But to your earlier point, how do you enforce that? And I think you gave a really good example about like, if you have a custom GPT, and then they resort to like, using. Um Claude on their personal accounts, and then it’s a little bit like the wild west out there, isn’t it? Nick Usborne  15:06 It is, it is, and it’s and it’s, how do you enforce it? Well, that’s going to be a company by company decision. Like, like the Founder with the PR of the PR company, when she was telling me about how her employees just weren’t doing what they were asked. I was like, part of you is thinking about, why haven’t you kind of cracked down on this? But again, it depends on the company and what options you have when it comes to enforcing stuff like this. But I do think you need to, because then if we circle right back, if you have people who are untrained, and that’s the company’s responsibility to train their employees. If you have people who are untrained and they’re using these tools inconsistently, that is when you far more likely then to see errors for, you know, unforced errors like publishing stuff that you shouldn’t but you’re also going to see more brand drift, because you’re going to get this inconsistency between output and that is a disaster. Like I say, companies have sometimes spent, in a decade, several years in establishing and building a trustworthy brand. And people are very unforgiving. You can, you can lose all that goodwill very, very quickly. So, yeah, training frameworks make sure people are, you know, working within those boundaries, but as a company, it’s your responsibility to help make that happen. Christian Klepp  16:29 Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You kind of brought this up already, but you mentioned that AI can help to scale content, but it can’t replicate your lived story, so please explain what you meant by that, and provide an example. If you can, Nick Usborne  16:46 AI can do a wonderful job in many ways, but you know, it’s never walked down the beach and felt the sand between its toes. It’s read about it. It’s never eaten ice cream. It’s read about that, but it’s never felt it. So that’s what I mean by lived experience. So I think that content and stories that truly resonate with people, you use those kind of touch points, the deeply human side of being alive and like say, I think AI can get close when you prompt it really well, but also there’s a messiness that makes us recognize one another, the little mistakes we make, that’s what makes us human. We are messy, and it’s not very good at being messy. You can ask it to be messy, and it’ll try to figure that out, but it’s really not the same. And like I say, I think people are very sensitive to this kind of nuance and the lived story. It’s the it’s the weird stuff. I think that resonates. So I’ve spent quite a bit of my career doing copywriting for companies, and for a long period, I was doing some freelance, a lot of freelance copywriting. So this is just a little side note, a little side story for you. I used to live on a hobby farm. We had some sheep and pigs and chickens and all that good stuff, the good life. And also had freelance customers. And I went in, and I was and I went, you know, you go out, you feed the animals, you come in, I sit down to work, and my client said, this is just on the phone. This is even before the internet. Client said, Hey, you’re late. I was just out farming the pig and feeding the pigs. And the guy says, what? And this, I hadn’t realized. I never told him that I lived on a farm. He thought somewhere. So anyway, we talked a little bit about the pigs, then we get to work. So the project we’re working on worked out really well, and it won an award. So we fly off to your hometown, Toronto, for the awards ceremony, direct marketing awards ceremony, and he stands up and he says, Thank you very much. Blah, blah, blah. And special thanks to Nick Usborne, the pig farming copywriter. And I’m like, I’m like, in the audience, and I’m thinking, oh, please no. This guy is like, rebranding me constantly in front of all my peers, all my potential clients for next year. Big drama turns out so, so that that’s messy, all right? AI wouldn’t do that, you wouldn’t imagine that it wouldn’t do that. That’s a deeply human moment of my humiliation and him laughing, and everyone slapping me on the back and laughing and asking about my pigs. Turns out, over the next 12 months, I got a few phone calls out of the blue. And I say, Hello, Nick Usborne. I said, Oh, is that Nick Usborne? The cover of James Barber. And I say, why? Yes. And so I actually got work out of that, because it was such a distinct difference from every other copywriter out there. I was the only copywriter who had pigs. So that was just a fun story, but it also speaks to the difference between humans and AI, and it’s a live that’s a lived experience, and it’s a lived anecdote, and I tell the story, and it’s a true story that is really important, I think so, even when we use AI, even when we use it at its best, and it can be really good when you use it well, I think everyone should keep leave space for the human in the loop, as they say, keep that human element in there, big for those stories. So I so I encourage companies to create what I call like a story vault. So there’s the obvious stories, like the Founder story, the origin story, the six original success story, also put in the little quirky stories, like that one I just described, and and make that part of your process. And also go, you know, if you’re creating something with AI and it’s a big project, take the time to go and interview someone, talk to someone, get a human story, put it in just because you’re using AI, doesn’t mean to say that everything you create has to be 100% AI, you can, you can? I do this all the time. I look for it a draft with AI, then I’d go back in and I’ll rewrite the beginning with an anecdote, like the small s story, not a big dramatic story, just a little story. And what it does then is that then connects it with us, because as people, we recognize stories. Story is profound to all of us. I think in every country in the world, parents read their children bedtime stories. It’s something we share in common. It’s how we communicate, and it’s how we recognize our humanity in a sense of like, if you tell me a story, you connect with me, and vice versa. So that’s why I think stories are so important in this world of AI, because if you just go AI, it can get a little cold, and sometimes, as a reader, you don’t quite understand what’s happening and why, but you kind of feel it. There’s an absence. There’s something missing, and that what’s what you feeling is missing is that human touch, that human element, Christian Klepp  21:59 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, there’s like, there’s like, telltale signs, right? Like em dash being one of them,  Nick Usborne  22:06 em dash Christian Klepp  22:07 Yes, or Yeah. Or it tends to, like, regurgitate the same type of war. It’s like, I find it loves using the word landscape or navigate, you know, things of that nature, right?  Nick Usborne  22:20 Yeah.  Christian Klepp  22:21 Or uses these funny like, you know, the colon or for, for, for titles of episodes, for examples. Nick Usborne  22:30 In titles, even when I give it clear instructions, do not use them. So sometimes, when I create content like that is, I’ll create it in with one model like say, GPT5, and I’ll take it over to flawed, and I’ll say, hey, please edit and clean this up for me, and remove any, you know, repetition or whatever. And sometimes it comes back say, hey, looks pretty clean, pretty good. Other times it’ll change stuff. And then, of course, always I will, you know, I will review. And that’s the other thing that the companies need to think about. Is that, at the moment, content generation at scale within companies, it is a bit like a conveyor belt in a factory of all these boxes flying off the end into the FedEx back of the FedEx van, and without, without any kind of quality control, which, which is actually what you do have with income within you know, if you’re manufacturing, and you do have quality control, and you pick out every 20th item or whatever to make sure that it’s good, a lot of that isn’t happening, that isn’t happening with a lot of people using AI is people don’t even see it. It’s fully automated, like, like a week’s worth of social media is automated, or a month’s work worth, and no one, no human, has read it or reviewed it. It’s just flying out automatically. And that is where at some point you’re inevitably going to have a problem. And it may not be a big problem, it may be lots and lots of small problems, lots of lots of things sounding not quite right, and then all of a sudden, when you’ve got enough little things not sounding right, then you start getting a medium sized problem. Christian Klepp  24:06 Yeah, yeah. No, exactly, exactly. Okay. Now, you talked about it a little bit in the beginning, but talk to us about some of these, these frameworks and these processes that B2B companies can use to help them, you know, organize themselves and reap those benefits of AI without losing trust. Like, what are some of these processes and frameworks? Nick Usborne  24:26 I do some training, and I have done a few rubrics where people can kind of use those to formalize the process. But I think if we talk about story, and I think I already mentioned the idea of each company having a story vault, so be formal and deliberate about it. Everyone can chat about their company’s stories, but if I say to you, hey, is there a folder? Can I can I get a Google folder and find a compilation of all of these stories? And have you graded those stories in terms of how strong and relevant? And they are, and how engaging they might be, or how evocative they might be, and the answer is almost always no, the story is around. But there’s no story vault, and there’s no rubric in place to grade those stories and decide which might be the most appropriate points at which to share those stories. So it’s that, it’s that formalizing the process, and I don’t like being 100% rules based, but I think in the AI world right now, where we are in that kind of messy middle period, I think it’s really important to have some systems in place so that we do have a consistent output, so that when you so that your brand doesn’t suffer from brand drift, and that you don’t make some significant missteps along the way. So somebody within the organization needs to be responsible for this. Maybe it’s the Chief AI Officer, if you have one, or otherwise, somebody in Marketing. So yeah, help people with training, but also help them by giving them some framework, some rubrics and some just a system like, you know, hey, picked up a story from customer service, put it in the story vault, categorize it. Customer service in the story vault says someone else can come back and find it. So it’s not just word of mouth. It’s not accidental. There’s a place where people can go to and then you’re going to do the same with narrative, the things we say. And you have another vault, as it were, and another rubric to to assess voice, how we say it. So it’s just this formalization of the process, and also trying to make sure that people use these systems as you put them in place. So somebody’s got to be walking along behind, behind and sort of, and again, it’s like, I guess, like early days of anything. Not every, not everyone will love the process. Not everyone loves using AI. But it’ll come. It’ll come. People will get in their heart better, not only using AI, but doing it well and following these processes. Christian Klepp  27:02 Okay, fantastic, fantastic. Let me just quickly recap, because I was writing this down. So obviously, having a story vault, grading them if you can, if possible, having systems and frameworks in place, training the team and getting them to familiarize themselves with the systems having a vault for narrative and voice, I think was the other piece. And finally, using, using the systems, once you have them, not letting them collect dust, as it were, right? Nick Usborne  27:32 Like and it is, I get it right now. I get it. It’s hard for a lot of companies, because I think using AI has been very kind of mixed. Some companies have dived straight in. Others are resistant, particularly companies that have compliance issues, financial, medical stuff like that. They’re being very careful, very cautious, and for very good reason. So the rate of adoption is very uneven at the moment, Christian Klepp  28:01 Absolutely, absolutely, all right. Nick you’ve given us plenty here, right? But if we’re going to talk about actionable tips, like something that somebody who’s listening to this conversation that they can take action on right after listening to this interview, what are like some of the top three things you would advise them to do? Nick Usborne  28:17 Well, I guess first is just we’ve talked quite a bit about the story, the story of collecting stories. Just do that because, like I say, I think story is your is your superpower, because it is the only place where you have a moat you don’t in what you say and how you say it. Anyone can copy you, and I can automate copying you through AI as well, but I cannot steal your story, because it’s just not true if, if it’s not my story. So I’d always start there and again, start, start that. Build the vault, select the story and formalize that process. Interview the Founders, if you can, interview early employees, even if they’re retired, interview the first three clients, if you can access them, interview customer service. So often overlooked, customer service in one way or another, so long as that’s not all automated, if there’s still humans in that loop, then have conversations with them. And you can, you can, you can, get transcripts, customer service transcripts, and feed them into AI and say, hey, please analyze and summarize this. What are, what are the most powerful messages we can get from our customer service? Sort of stream of content? Do? Do a sentiment analysis? What are people upset about? What are people happy about? So, yeah, story, I think, is like, I say, it will be your motive, it will be your savior. So first start to formalize that process of getting story and then making sure that it finds a place, somewhere in your automation of, you know, AI generated content, Christian Klepp  29:58 Fantastic, fantastic stuff. Okay, soapbox time. What is the status quo in your area of expertise that you passionately disagree with, and why? Nick Usborne  30:11 I guess again, I’m just going to overlapping. I don’t know what a status quo, but the thing that I passionately disagree with is is every time you see most or a social media title that says top 20 killer, unbeatable prompts.  Christian Klepp  30:31 Oh, yeah. Nick Usborne  30:32 No, no, no, absolutely, just, just no for two reasons. One is that they’re going to be generic. They’re not going to apply to your company in particular, they’ll be generic, and just because they work for someone else does not mean they’re going to work for you. And like I say, we did, I’ve done research on those prompt libraries, and only 7% of them even touch on story. So if I’m writing stories, the most important thing almost all of those prompt libraries are missing out on that. They’re just focusing on narrative and voice and ignoring stories. So not good and and, yeah, so, so that is, I don’t know whether the status quo, but it’s something I keep seeing, and it irritates me when I get it. I understand why they’re doing it, but not helpful for your company. Christian Klepp  31:18 Yeah, you and me both. I mean, those are the those are the pulse they attempt to ignore immediately. I mean, I just skim through it and see the prompts, and I’m like, Nah, but I think it’s human nature too, isn’t it? Like everybody wants to chase the next hack. They want to find that the you know, the shortcut, like the quickest route to get something done. And I get that, but it sometimes does more harm than good. Nick Usborne  31:43 Easy button, but also to be fair and to be a little bit more generous. This is early days, and so people are looking for help. And if it says top 20, this is, oh my goodness, thank you. I’ll take that now. Over time, that’ll change, and people will become a little more sophisticated, I think, but like us, like you. You know, I get it. I understand why those those posts and titles are attractive, and that’s why people create them. But we can do better. We can do better Christian Klepp  32:12 Absolutely, absolutely we can, and we will, hopefully, all right, here comes the bonus question. I’ve been thinking about this one, but Nick Usborne  32:23 I feel strangely nervous. I feel nervous, but it’s a bonus question. Christian Klepp  32:30 Just breathe. Just breathe. I mean, clearly from this conversation, you know, writing is in your blood, right? It’s something that you are passionate about, but it’s also something you’ve done professionally for a long time, I suppose. The bonus question is, if you had an opportunity to meet your favorite writer or author, living or dead, who would it be, and what would you talk about?  Nick Usborne  32:55 One of the people, I really admire, and I’ve already spoken to him, is David Abbott. So David Abbott is a copywriter from from England, and he had an agency called Abbot Mead Vickers, and he was an amazing writer. So I’ve already met him. Who I haven’t met I would like to re write to meet is Susie Henry. She was the copywriter behind a series of advertisements in the UK for an insurance company, and she is just a delightful writer, so I told you, well, no, I hadn’t told you. Maybe I will tell you I’m like, when I started out copywriting, it was at the tail end of the Mad Men period, and creatives were the Kings and Queens, and copywriting was such a craft, it was something to be absolutely proud of, like we’d go through so many drafts, and it was, I was, you know, I was, I was a craftsman, learning from other craftsmen. And David, ever I met, he was in a fantastic writer, just written Susie Henry so good, very, very conversational writer, which was very unusual for that time. So I’d like to meet and talk with her, and I still can’t remember the fiction writer. He’s science fiction writer. I completely lost blank on his name, and I’ve actually met him once briefly, but I’d like to get back to him and chat, but I can’t, because he’s he’s since passed. Christian Klepp  34:19 Oh, I see, I see, I see. All right, well, that’s quite the list of people, but, um, but yeah. No, fantastic. No. Nick, thank you so much for coming on the show and for sharing your experience and expertise with the listeners. And please quick introduction to yourself and how people can get in touch with you. Nick Usborne  34:37 All right. Hi. My name is Nick Usborne, so my business build Story Aligned. So storyaligned.com and what we do there is pretty much, what I’ve talked about today is we train teams within companies to look at story, narrative and voice with a lot of emphasis on story, because that’s where the note is, so if you get a Story Aligned, you’ll find we have a white paper you can download. We have a blog that you can read, the description of the training. So yeah, if this interests you, if you find this an interesting topic, there’s plenty to do when you get there. So Story Aligned, A, L, I, G, N, E, D, yeah. Story Aligned. Christian Klepp  35:21 Fantastic, fantastic. And we’ll be sure to pop that into the show notes so that it’ll be easy for everyone to access. But once again, Nick, thank you.  Nick Usborne  35:28 Sorry, one last thing, if you want to please opening myself up, if you want to just talk to me directly, you can write to me at nick@storyaligned.com. Christian Klepp  35:38 Perfect, perfect. Nick, once again, thanks so much for your time. Take care, stay safe and talk to you soon. Nick Usborne  35:44 Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. It’s been a pleasure. Christian Klepp  35:47 Thank you. Bye for now. You.

Cory has Headlines, Sauce names his favorite dinosaurs, Pepsi almost killed Michael Jackson, we learn what Dav eats every morning

Cory has Headlines, Sauce names his favorite dinosaurs, Pepsi almost killed Michael Jackson, we learn what Dav eats every morningSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After years of building credibility with a core consumer, Zevia is leaning into scale – and confronting what it takes to turn a purpose-driven brand into a durable CPG business.  In this episode, CEO Amy Taylor breaks down the executional shifts across product, pricing, packaging and mass retail distribution that are helping Zevia compete more effectively in mainstream grocery and position the brand for sustainable, long-term growth. Show notes: 0:25: Amy Taylor, CEO, Zevia – Amy discusses her journey from two decades at Red Bull to leading Zevia, explaining how her brand-building experience prepared her to scale a modern soda brand at the right cultural moment. She positions Zevia as a timely solution amid growing interest in the better-for-you soda category and explains how advances in stevia use and flavor blending have unlocked a more sugar-like taste. Amy highlights the brand's expansion into mainstream retailers like Walmart, its role as an anchor brand due to value and multipacks, and the importance of trust, transparency, and word-of-mouth marketing over lecturing consumers. She also discusses packaging makeovers and a new marketing campaign focused on a moderation-based philosophy. Amy also outlines her leadership approach, which is centered on humility, strong teams and long-term growth. Brands in this episode: Zevia, Red Bull, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, Sprite, Doritos, Oreos

Protecting your ideas can be the difference between building momentum and watching someone else run with your work. In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with patent attorney and entrepreneur Devin Miller to explore what founders and business owners really need to know about patents, trademarks, and intellectual property. Devin shares how his background in engineering, startups, and law shaped his approach to innovation, and he breaks down the real differences between provisional and non-provisional patents in clear, practical terms. We talk about common mistakes entrepreneurs make, how legal protection supports growth instead of slowing it down, and why understanding intellectual property early can help you compete with confidence. I believe this conversation will give you clarity, direction, and a stronger foundation for protecting what you work so hard to create. Highlights: 00:01:18 – Hear how growing up in a small town shaped Devin's approach to problem-solving and business.00:12:53 – Learn why Devin combined engineering, business, and law instead of choosing a single career path.00:19:32 – Discover how a student competition turned into a real wearable technology startup.00:30:57 – Understand the clear difference between patents, trademarks, and copyrights.00:33:05 – Learn when a provisional patent makes sense and when it does not.00:53:52 – Discover what practical options exist when competitors copy or knock off your product. About the Guest: Devin Miller is the founder of Miller IP, a firm launched in 2018 that helps startups and small businesses protect their inventions and brands without breaking the bank. He's overseen over a thousand patent and trademark filings with a 95 percent success rate on patents and an 85 percent success rate on trademarks, making sure garage inventors and side hustlers get the same high-quality service as big tech. Before starting his firm, Devin spent years at large law firms working with clients like Intel and Amazon, but he found his true passion in helping scrappy entrepreneurs turn ideas into assets. He blends legal know how with an entrepreneur's mindset, offering flat fee packages, DIY legal tools, and hosting webinars and a podcast series to demystify IP. A lifelong runner who knocks out 10+ miles a day and 30-40 miles daily biking (except Sunday), Devin listens to audiobooks and podcasts while training for marathons. When he's not drafting office action responses or co-hosting Inventive Journey, you might catch him brainstorming the next Inventive Youth program or sipping coffee while sketching partnership agreements. Ways to connect with Devin**:** If you'd like to talk strategy or swap running playlist recs, feel free to schedule a chat at http://strategymeeting.com LinkedIn profile  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawwithmiller/ Firm website [https://www.lawwithmiller.com](https://www.lawwithmiller.com "https://www.lawwithmiller.com") About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Well, hello to all of you, wherever you happen to be today, you are listening to or watching or both unstoppable mindset and I am your host. Mike hingson, our guest today is Devin Miller, who founded the company, Miller IP, and he'll tell us all about that and what that means and so on as we go through this. But I will tell you that he is a lawyer. He deals with patents and other things and a lot of stuff relating to startups. I think that's going to be a lot of fun to talk about. So without any further ado, as it were, Devin, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Thanks for having me on. Excited to be here. Well, we're glad. We're glad you're here. Can you hear me? Okay, now I hear you. Devin Miller  02:06 Well, we're sorry for the delay, but I said I'm excited to be here and looking forward to chatting. Michael Hingson  02:11 Well, perfect. Well, let's start. I love to always do this. Let's start kind of at the beginning. Why don't you tell us about the early Devon, growing up and all that? Devin Miller  02:21 You know, I I'm happy to do. I don't know there's anything that probably stands out. I was probably fairly typical. So I was raised in a religious family, so we're attended church regularly every week. And I had a couple sisters, an older and a younger one, and was went through, went through schooling and or studied, probably the typical course. So I don't know there's anything stands out. I was in a small town, so grew up as, probably not as small as I'd like it to be anymore, but a small farming town, and it was, it was kind of always enjoyed the small town fill, and actually am back to being in that same hometown where I live now with my family. But yeah, so I did that, and I did probably the at the time, the typical thing with the it's growing up with kids and sports and doing things, and went through high school and and after that, jumped or went off to college. But I don't know if there's anything in particular that stands out in my mind, other than probably, at least in my mind, a pretty typical childhood and upbringing, but enjoyed it nonetheless. But happy to provide any details or I can jump into a bit about college. Michael Hingson  03:38 Well, where did you go to college? Devin Miller  03:40 Yeah, so I went to Brigham, young university, just or BYU, just out here in Utah. So I went off to so, or I graduated high school and I went off to a year of college. So I went off to BYU, kind of intending to go into electrical engineering, which is what I or one of the degrees I ended up studying with, and then I did that for a year, and after which I went off and did a served a religious mission for my church, so Church of Jesus Christ, or Latter Day Saints, otherwise nicknamed Mormon. So I went off and went to Taiwan for about two years. So didn't have any idea, even at that point where Taiwan was and certainly didn't know the language, but when studied that, or they have a training center where you get an opportunity to study it for about three months. So I studied it and then went off to Taiwan and served that religious mission for my church for a couple years before coming back to the high school, or good, not the high school to college to continue my studies. Michael Hingson  04:43 I several, several comments. One, I know what you mean about small hometowns. We moved from Chicago, where I was born, to California when I was five, we moved to a town called Palmdale, and it was a very small rural town about 60. Five miles north of Los Angeles. I don't know what the population was when we first moved there, but it couldn't have been more than 1000 or 1500 people spread out over a little bit of a distance. For me, it was great, because without there being a lot of traffic, I was able to do things I might not have done nearly as well in Chicago things like riding a bike, learning to ride a bike and walking to school and and not ever fearing about walking to school for any reasons, including being blind. But oftentimes I once I learned how to do it, I rode my own bike to school and locked it in the bike rack and then rode home and all that. But then Palmdale started to grow and I'm not quite sure what the population is today, but I live in a town about 55 miles east of Palmdale called Victorville, and as I described Victorville growing up, it was not even a speck on a radar scope compared to the small town of Palmdale, but we we moved down to Southern California from the Bay Area my wife and I to be closer to family and so on. In 2014 we wanted to build a house for Karen, because she was in a wheelchair her whole life. So we wanted to get a a house that would be accessible. And my gosh, the only place we could find any property was Victorville. And at that time, in 2014 it had 115,000 people in it. It has grown. Now it Devin Miller  06:31 has grown. And it tends to be that, you know, it feels like everybody's always kind of chasing the small town then, or people find out about it. Everybody moves in. It's no longer a small town, and then you're off to chasing the the next small town, wherever that might be. So it's kind of a perpetual cycle of of chasing that small or at least for the people to like it. Not everybody loves it, but I'm certainly a proponent of chasing that small town feel from from place to places, as you're trying to or trying to find or recreate what you probably grew up with. So it is a it is a cycle that everybody I think is chasing, Michael Hingson  07:09 yeah, well, for me now, my wife passed away in 2022 we were married 40 years. And so the thing about it is that there are probably advantages for me living alone, being in a place that has a few more people and a few more of the kind of amenities that at least somewhat larger towns have, like a Costco and some some restaurants. We actually live in a homeowner's development, a homeowner's association called Spring Valley Lake, and I live within walking distance of the Country Club, which has a nice restaurant, so I'm able to go to the to the restaurant whenever I choose, and that's kind of nice. So there's value for me and being here and people say, Well, do you ever want to move from Victorville now that your wife died? And why do I want to do that? Especially since I have a 3.95% mortgage? You know, I'm not going to do that, and I'm in a new house that. Well, relatively new. It was built in 2016 so it's pretty much built to code. And insulation is great. Solar is great on the house. Air conditioning works, so I can't complain. Devin Miller  08:20 No, sounds like a good setup, and it's kind of one where, why, if you enjoy where you're at, why would you move to go somewhere else that you wouldn't necessarily enjoy? So it just sounds like it works out. Michael Hingson  08:29 Well, it does, and I can always, as I need to being a keynote speaker and traveling, there's a shuttle that'll take me down to the nearest airports. So that works out. Well, that's awesome. So you went to, I'm a little bit familiar with the the whole LDS missionary program, Mission program, we we were not part of the church, but we lived, when my wife and I got married, we lived in Mission Viejo and we had neighbors right next door to us, who were members of the church, and they came over one day and they said, we have an issue. And I said, Okay. And my wife said, Okay, what's the issue? Well, we have a couple of missionaries coming in, and the only homes that are available to these two boys are homes that already have young female girls in them. So they really can't be in those homes. Would you be willing to rent your one of your rooms to missionaries? And so we said, and well, Karen said, because she was a member of the Methodist church, we said, as long as they don't try to mormonize us, we won't try to methodize them. And we would love to do it. And it worked out really well. We had a couple of missionaries for a while, and then they switched out. And eventually we had a gentleman from Tonga for a while, and we actually had a couple girls for for a while. So it worked out really well, and we we got to know them all, and it was a great relationship. And they did their work, and at Christmas time, they certainly were invited to our Christmas parties. We. Had every year a party. What we actually had was what we call a Christmas tree upping. We got the tree, we brought it into the house, and we invited all of our friends and neighbors to come and decorate the tree in the house. Because, needless to say, we weren't going to do that very well. Karen especially wasn't going to be able to stand up and decorate the tree. So we got them to do all the tree decorations and all that, and we fed them. So it worked out. Devin Miller  10:26 Well, it's awesome. Sounds like, great. And you hit on. I said, that's probably my, my favorite part of the Christmas is a Christmas tree. So growing up, we always had a real live tree, but it was always, you know, it was downstairs in the basement, and had lower ceilings. And so I was always kind of the opinion, hey, when I grow up, I want to have the a huge, you know, kind of like in the newbies at 20 plus or 20 or 20 plus foot tree, yeah. And lo and behold, we, or at least the couple houses that we build have always had, at least in the living space, have had the pretty high ceilings. And so that's always what we do. We'll go out and we'll cut down a live tree. So we'll go out to kind of in nature, to the forest, where they let you cut them down, and we'll, we'll cut down, usually it's around a 20 plus foot tree, and then have it strung up in the house. And I always tell my wife, I said, I'd rather that one could be my Christmas present. I'd be just as happy, because as long as I have my tree, it's a good Christmas for me. Michael Hingson  11:23 Yeah, oh, I hear you. Well, one of the boys who lived next door to us went off on a mission to, I think it was Argentina, and was gone for, I guess, two years. What was really funny is when he came back, it took him a while to re acclimatize his speaking English and getting back his American accent. He was he definitely had much more of a Spanish accent, and was much more used to speaking Spanish for a while. So the the three month exposure period certainly got him started at the at the center there in Utah. And then he went off and did his missionary work and then came home. But, you know, it's, it's got to be a wonderful and a very valuable experience. How do you think it affected you? Devin Miller  12:10 Yeah, I think I said, I think it would be, you said it probably well, is it like one where to say, Hey, this is the most fun time in your life, and you'll never have a more fun time. I don't know that. It's kind of like, you know, I liken it to I so I like to do a lot of running, so or in older years. I don't know that I was as much in younger years, but kind of discovered not that I love running, per se, but love to get out and decompress and otherwise, kind of have a time where I don't have a lot of intrusions or other things that are pressing in on life. And so with that, you know, I've done a number of marathons and marathons, you know, everybody again, says, Well, did you have fun? Or was it a good or was it good marathon? So I don't know that it's ever fun. I don't and do it, but it's a good accomplishment. You it's, you go out, you set your mind to something, and then otherwise, at the end of the day, you reach your goal. And, you know, kind of has the that sense of accomplishment and learning and become improving yourself. That's probably a lot of how I like in a mission is, you know, you have a lot of stresses of learning a new language, being in a different culture, doing something that you're unfamiliar with or not accustomed to, and at the end, you know, you learn a lot of things, you are gain a lot of skills. You hopefully impact a lot of people's lives for the better. And so it is definitely one of those where it's a great accomplishment, but it's not, you know, it's not one way to say, hey, this was a fun vacation where I got to go play for two years. So it it works out well, and I would absolutely do it again. Michael Hingson  13:31 Yeah, I'm sure you learned a lot, and you probably learned a whole lot more in a lot of ways, than most of the people that you you visited with because you treated it as an adventure and an adventure to learn. So that's pretty cool, absolutely. So you came back from that and you went back to college, and did you continue in electrical engineering? Or what Devin Miller  13:56 did you do? Yes and no. So I did continue in electrical engineering. Or so I came back and, you know, the intent was, and what I continue to do is to study electrical engineering. I did add on a second degree, which I was a Mandarin Chinese and so I can't remember, I mentioned I I served in Taiwan for those couple years and had an opportunity to kind of, you know, learn and study the language. So as I was doing that, I kind of came back and said, Well, if I've already put in the effort to learn the language and to study it, I might as well, you know, utilize it, or add it to the degree. And so I I really started, or I added that as a second degree to the first degree. So I came out with both the degree in Chinese or man or Chinese, as well as electrical engineering. So yes, continue to study that. And then from that, you know, kind of just as a part of that story. So I was coming out, kind of getting, you know, the senior year, kind of getting towards the end of that degree, and looked at and said, you know, what do I want to do when I grow up? And I still know if I know the full answer, but I did look at it and say, Hey, I, you know, I don't know exactly what I want to do when I grow up, but I don't, I like engineering. Engineering, but I don't want to be an engineer in the sense that, you know, not that I didn't like engineering, but it was one where a typical electrical engineers, you come out of graduate school, you go work for a big company. You're a very small cog and a very big Will you work for. You know, 1015, years, you gain enough experience to have any say your direction and what projects you work on or really have any impact. Not saying that's not really what I want to do when I grow up, or when I start into the working world. And so kind of with that, I, you know, I had a couple interests I enjoyed, you know, kind of the startup, small business, kind of that type of world. And I also found it interesting to on the legal aspect of intellectual property, so patents, trademarks, and really more. At the idea of, hey, you're going to work with a lot of cooling or cool inventions, cool people are working on a lot of unique things, and you get a lot more variety. And you get, you know, kind of be more impactful. And so that was kind of the the Crossroads I found myself at saying which, you know, kind of which direction I want to go. And, you know, kind of, rather than take one or the other, I kind of, I split the road and decided I was going to do both. So I went off to graduate school and did both an MBA or a master's in business administration as well as a law degree, kind of focused more on intellectual property. So went off and studied both of those kind of with the intent of, you know, I don't want to just be fit into one box or do just one thing, but I'd like to keep a foot in the business world, startup world, and have an opportunity to pursue my own business as well as doing the law degree. So I did that in a Case Western Reserve out in Cleveland, Ohio, studying both of those degrees Michael Hingson  16:34 when you were getting your degree in manner, in Chinese. Was that all about speaking the language, or was it also involved in history and civilization and understanding more about China? What was it like? Devin Miller  16:47 It was really more, certainly, there was a or, I guess, are you saying within college or within the mission itself? 16:54 In college? Okay, yeah. I mean, it was, Devin Miller  16:57 it was still primarily focused on the language. You know, the nice thing is, you can test out of a number of the, you know, entry level or their beginning classes, as long as you can show a proficiency. So there may have been some of that, and you still got, you know, some of the classes, would you still study a little bit of poetry, or, you know, within the language context, they've used poetry as a way to kind of learn different aspects of the language. You'd get a little bit of history, but pretty, or vast majority of focus was kind of both speaking as well as the the written and, you know, those are really as opposed to, like English speaking, where it's phonetics and you can or sound out and kind of understand what a you know, what something means by sounding it out, you don't have to know the word in order To, you know, to pronounce it. Chinese is not that way. So you have characters that are just every character you have to memorize. There is no phonetics. There's no way that you can look at a character and sound it out. And so there's a large amount of just memorizing, memorizing, you know, 20,000 characters to read a newspaper type of a thing. And then on the flip side is you have to learn the language, which is, you know, which are already focused on that, more on the mission, but you have to do pronunciation, so you can say the same word with different tones and it has entirely different meaning. So really, there was enough there on the language side, they tended to primarily focus on that, just because there was quite a bit there to Michael Hingson  18:19 dive into. It's a complicated language. Devin Miller  18:23 It it is certainly or uniquely different from English. I would say probably English to Chinese speakers is the hardest language because it's the most different from their language. And vice versa for English speaking Chinese is at least one of the this or harder languages because it is entirely different. So it is one that has a lot of intricacies that you get to learn. Michael Hingson  18:45 I took German in high school for three years, and then in college, I did a lot of shortwave listening and encountered radio Japan a bunch. So I actually took a year of Japanese, and I think from a written language, it's a lot more complicated than spoken language. I think it's a lot more straightforward than Chinese and a lot of ways easier to learn. But even so, it is different than than Latin languages by any standard. Devin Miller  19:16 But it is. It's an animal in and of itself, but it makes it fun. Michael Hingson  19:21 Yeah, that's right, it does make it fun. Incident. And then, as I said, it was an adventure. And all of that was, was an adventure. My master's is in physics. That was an adventure. And until you spend a lot of time dealing with physics and hopefully getting beyond just doing the math, you learn how much of a philosophical bent and how much about society and the way things work really is wrapped up in physics. So again, it's it's kind of fun, and unlike a lot of physicists or engineers. I've never thought that one is better or worse than the other. I think they both have purposes. And so as a physics person, I never pick on engineers. Devin Miller  20:11 I am, I wouldn't pick up. I wouldn't pick on any physics or physicists or physics majors, either, because that's equally, if not more difficult. And so there's a lot of learning that goes on and involved with all of them. But they're all of them are fun areas to Michael Hingson  20:26 study with. They are. So once you you got your master's degrees, and you you got your law degree, what did you go off and do? Devin Miller  20:36 Yeah, so I mean, I would probably back it up just a little bit. So kind of during that period where I was getting the degrees, couple things happened. Had a couple kids. So started out first kid while I was doing the, I guess the second year where I was in under or doing the law and MBA degree, doing it as a joint degree. And so had the had a kid. And then during that same period, the next year, about a year about a year and a half later, had another kid. And so that puts me as a it's a four year program, if you combine both of them together. And so I was in the kind of the third year, the four year program. And while I was doing those studies, you know, I had a I was doing a couple things. One is, I was doing the both, or studying both majors, raising the family. I was working about 20 hours as a law clerk or for a law firm, and then during that, I can't remember or if it was a flyer, or if it was, you know, an email or whatnot, but came across a business competition, or it's kind of a, it was kind of a, a multi disciplinary competition wherever, you know, people of different degrees and different fields of study would get together, you form a group of four or five, and you work on developing an idea, and then you would enter it into the competition and see how it goes. And so we did that the first year, and we did something, an idea to make Gym Bags less smelly, and then enter that in and took second place. And during that period, next year comes along, we're all in our final year of our degree. And as we're doing that, we are studying the degree and or entering the competition again. And we decided to do something different. It was for wearables. You know, this is before Apple Watch, or, you know, the Fitbit, or anything else. It was well before I knew that, but we just said, Hey, when I was there, thinking, hey, wouldn't it be cool I'd ran my or, I think, my second marathon that time. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could monitor your hydration level so that you can make sure you're staying well hydrated throughout and it helps with the air, not being a sore and being, you know, quicker recovery and performing better. And so out of that, took the genesis of that idea, entered it back into the business comp, or that is a new idea, into the business competition, and did that with the partners, and took second place again, still a little bitter, or bitter that about that, because the people that took first place has entered the same thing that they entered the previous year, but polished, or took the money they've earned previously and polished it made it look a little nicer, and won again because it looked the most polished. But that aside, was a great, or great competition. Enjoyed it. And from that, you know, said, Hey, I think this is a good idea. I think it can be a, you know, something that you could actually build a business around. And so said, Hey, or kind of told the the people that were in the the group with me, you know, we're all graduating. We're going different directions. Would be pretty hard to do a startup altogether. So why don't we do this? Or why don't you guys take all the money that I got, you know that we you're in some reward money, or, you know, prize money. If you take my portion, split it amongst yourselves, and I'll just take ownership of the idea, whatever it is, where, you know, wherever I take it, and simply own it outright, you know, basically buying them out. And so that's what I did. So coming out of, you know, getting the MBA in the law degree, that was kind of always the intent. So, or coming out of school, I went and joined a law firm here in Utah. Was a full time patent attorney, and then alongside, you know, had the side hustle, what I'd really say is kind of a second full time job to where I was, you know, pursuing that startup or small business alongside of doing the law firm. So that was kind of the the genesis for, as I graduated full time attorney working, you know, with a lot of our cool clients and other things, and then also incorporating the desire to do a startup or small business. And that's kind of been, really, the trajectory that I've taken throughout my career is really, you know, finding ways to combine or to pursue both interests together. Michael Hingson  24:26 What happened to the business? Devin Miller  24:28 Yeah, so it so it's still alive today. I've been, I exited. Now it's been a couple year and a half, two years somewhere in there. Have to think back. So it started out. So with the business I started out, it was actually one where, rewinding just a little bit when we when I got started, my dad was also an electrical engineer. He'd actually, you know, he's well or farther into his career, and he done a number of different things across their medical devices through his career. And so he kind of, or he joined on as kind of doing it with us. Hustle with me, and we took that, started to build it. We brought on some additional team members. We brought on an investor, and actually built out and grew the business. It also evolved. So we were starting to test or test out the technology have it with some colleges and some other, you know, athletes, which was a natural place to start it at and about that time, and we were getting kind of to that next hurdle where we either needed to get a further investment or cash infusion, you know, to kind of take it to a more of a marketable, you know, a except a Polish full or ready to go to market type of product. And at that time, as we're exploring that we had or came or got connected with somebody that was more in the diabetes monitoring, they were doing it more from a service base. But you know, the overlay as to kind of how the technologies are overlapped with what they're doing tended to work out pretty well. And so we ended up combining the business to be one, where it was redirected a lot of the technology we developed underlining to be more of a wearables for the diabetes monitor. So that was a number of years ago. I stayed on doing a lot of, some of the engineering and development, primarily more in the intellectual property realm, of doing a lot of patents and whatnot. And then about a year and a half, two years ago, got bought out, was exited from that company and and that continues on today. It's still alive and growing, and I kind of watch it from, you know, from a distance, so to speak, or kind of continue to maintain interest, but don't are not necessarily active within the business anymore. So that was kind of a long answer to a shorter question, but that's kind of where the business eventually evolved to. Michael Hingson  26:36 So now I'm sure that the company is doing things like developing or working with products like continuous glucose monitors and so on. Devin Miller  26:46 Yep, yeah, that's kind of the direction as to what they're headed you Michael Hingson  26:49 well, and what's what's been interesting about several of the CGM type devices is that for people who are blind, there's been a real push to try to get some of them to be accessible. And what finally occurred about a year ago, maybe two years ago, is that one of the devices that's out there was approved to actually incorporate an app on a smartphone, and when the app came out, then it was really easy, although it took an effort to convince people to pay attention to it and do it, but it became technically a lot easier to deal with access, because all you had to do was to make the app accessible. And so there now is a continuous glucose monitor that that is accessible, whereas you wherein you get all the information from the app through voiceover, for example, on the iPhone or through talkback on a android phone that you get when you're just looking at the screen, which is the way it really should be anyway, because If you're going to do it, you should be inclusive and make it work for everyone. Devin Miller  28:06 No, that's cool. Yeah, there's a number of I think, between, you know, being a prevalent, you know, issue that people are dealing with, to, you know, different trying to address things earlier on, and also to motivate people do healthier lifestyle. And kind of the direction I think, is headed where a lot of the the company that's continues on today, from our original technology, is on the non invasive side. So a lot of them have, you have to have a patch, or you have to have periodically prick, or put an arm, you know, arm, right? Something where has a needle in the arm. And this one is kind of trying hair working to take it to that next level, to where it's no longer having to be invasive, and it's really all without having air with sensors that don't require you to have any sort of pain or prick in order to be able to utilize it. So kind of fun to fun to see how the industry continues to evolve. Michael Hingson  28:55 Well, today, we're working on that, and tomorrow, of course, the tricorder. So you know, we'll, we'll get to Star Trek 29:03 absolutely one step at a time. Michael Hingson  29:05 Yeah, but I've kind of figured that people were certainly working on non invasive technology so that you didn't have to have the sensor stuck in your arm. And I'm not surprised that that that's coming, and we'll be around before too long, just because we're learning so much about other ways of making the measurements that it makes sense to be able to do that. Devin Miller  29:31 Yep, no, absolutely. You know, it is a hard nut to crack. The body is very complex. A lot of things going on, and to measure it, not invasively, is certainly a lot that goes into it, but I think there's a lot of good, good technologies coming out. A lot of progress is being made, and certainly fun to continue to see how the health devices continue to hit the market. So certainly a cool area. Michael Hingson  29:53 So why did you decide, or maybe it was a natural progression, but why did you decide to go into patent law? Yeah. Devin Miller  30:01 I mean, I think it was probably a natural progression, and in the sense that, you know, it is one where overall desire was, Hey, I like engineering from the sense I like to think or how things work and kind of break things down and to have a better understanding. So really, intellectual property law and patents and trademarks and others allowed me to work with a lot of startups and small businesses, see a lot of cool things that they're developing still play a hand in it, and yet, also not, you know, be mired down to a long project over multiple years where you, you know, you're a small cog in a big wheel. And so, yeah, that was kind of one where it fit well within kind of the overall business, you know, business desire and business aspect of what I wanted to accomplish, and also just overall, you know, enjoying it or enjoying it. So that's kind of where it might, you know, it married well with the the desire to do startups and small businesses, as well as to work with a lot of other startups and small businesses. Michael Hingson  30:55 That's a lot of fun, to be able to deal with startups and see a lot of new and innovative kinds of things. And being in patent law, you probably see more than a lot of people, which does get to be exciting in an adventure, especially when you see something that looks like it has so much potential. Yep. Devin Miller  31:14 No, it is. It is fun. I get to see everything from I've worked on everything from boat anchors to credit card thing or devices that help elderly people to remove them more easily, from their wallet to AI to drones to software other or software platforms to medical devices. So it gives a ability to have a pretty good wide exposure to a lot of cool, different, you know, very different types of innovations, and that makes her just, you know, a fun, fun time, and be able to work or work with the air businesses as they develop. Are all those different technologies? Michael Hingson  31:50 Well, on the the law side of things, what's the difference between a provisional patent and a non provisional filing? Devin Miller  31:57 Yeah, so, so I don't back it up, and I'll get to your question. But maybe I'd set the stages to when you're looking at what is the difference between a patent and trademark and copyright, because a lot of times when people look at that, that's probably a good question too. Provisional trademark, or I want a, you know, or a non provisional copyright, or whatever it might be, and kind of get the terminology mixed up. So if you're to take it one step back, a provisional patent app or a patent is something that goes towards protecting an invention. So something that has the functionality that does something, that accomplishes something, a trademark is going to be something that is protecting of a brand. So name of a company, name of a product, a cash, phrase, a logo, and those type of things all really fall under trademarks and copyrights are going to be something that's more creative in nature. So a painting, a sculpture, a picture, a book, you know, all those type of things are going to fall under copyrights. And so really, when you're looking at it, you know, kind of breaking it down initially, you look at it as you know, which one is it. And so now to your question, Michael Hingson  32:58 well, before you go there, before you go ahead, before you go there. So if I'm writing software, does that fall under patent or copyright? I would assume if the software is to do something, it would be a patent. Devin Miller  33:12 So software primarily is under a patent. So there's, technically, you can copyright software. Now there's, it's pretty limited in its scope of protection. So if you're to do or software and do it under a copyright, really, all it protects is the exact way that you wrote the code. So you know, got it using this exact coding language. If somebody come along, copy and paste my code, you'll be protected. But it doesn't protect the functionality of how this code works or what it does. It is purely just how you wrote the code. So most of the time, when you're looking at software, it's really going to be more under a patent, because you're not going to want to just simply protect the identical way that you wrote the code, but rather what it does and what it does, yeah. So yep. So yeah, you for if you're to do as as your example, software, primarily, you're going to it's going to fall under patents. Michael Hingson  34:01 Okay, so anyway, back to provisional and non provisional. Devin Miller  34:05 Yeah, so, and when you're looking at doing a patent, you can do there's a couple different types of patents. One is a design patent. It really just goes to something the esthetic nature, the look and feel of a of an invention. So if you're thinking of the iPhone, you know, used to have the curved edges. I had the circle or a button at the bottom. It had, you know, the speaker placement and all those things. And it was just that outward appearance, not the functionality, could go under a design patent, but what the primary patent, which is what most people pursue, is what's called the utility patent application. And the utility patent application is really going towards the functionality of how something works. So the utility, how it works, what it does, and then kind of the purpose of it. And so with that, when you're looking at pursuing a utility patent application, there are a couple different types of patents that you can or types of utility patent patent applications. So. As you mentioned, one is called a provisional patent application. The other one is called a non provisional patent application. So a provisional patent application is kind of set up primarily, a lot of times for startups or small businesses where they're going to have a some product or an innovation that they're working on. They're in earlier stages. They're wanting to kind of protect what they have while they continue to develop it, and kind of flush it out. So provisional patent application is set up to be a one year placeholder application. So it will get, you know, you file it, you'll get patent pending, you'll get a date of invention, and it'll give you a year to decide if you want to pursue a full patent application or not. So you can file that gives you that one year time frame as a placeholder. The non provisional patent application would be the full patent application. So that would be what has, all the functionality, all the features, all the air, formalities and air, and it will go through the examination process. We'll go look at it for patentability. So those are kind of the difference provisional, one year, placeholder, less expensive, get your patent pending, versus the non provisional, that's the full patent application and gives you kind of that, or we'll go through examination. Michael Hingson  36:12 Do most people go through the provisional process just because it not only is less expensive, but at least it puts a hold and gives you a place. Devin Miller  36:22 It really just depends on where people are at. So kind of, you know, a lot of times people ask, Hey, well, what would you recommend? And I'll usually say, hey, there are typically two reasons why I would do a provisional patent application. And if you don't fall into either of those camps, then I would probably do a non provisional patent. Got it. So generally, the two reasons I get one is certainly budgetary. Give you an example. So our flat fee, you know, we do our primarily everything, flat fee in my firm, and a provisional patent application to prepare and file it, our flat fee is 2500 versus a non provisional patent application is 6950 so one is, Hey, your startup, small business, to have a limited funds, you're wanting to get a level of protection in place while you continue to pursue or develop things, then you would oftentimes do that as a provisional patent application. And the other reason, a lot of times where I would recommend it is, if you're saying, Hey, we've got a initial innovation, we think it's going to be great. We're still figuring things out, so we'd like to get something in place while we continue to do that research and develop it and kind of further figure it out. So that would be kind of, if you fall into one of those camps where it's either budgetary overlay, or it's one where you're wanting to get something in place and then take the next year to further develop it, then a provisional patent application is oftentimes a good route. There are also a lot of clients say, Hey, I'm, you know, we are pretty well. Did the Research Development getting ready to release it in the marketplace. While we don't have unlimited funds, we still have the ability to just simply go or go straight to a non provisional so we can get the examination process started, and then they'll go that route. So both of them are viable route. It's not kind of necessarily. One is inherently better or worse than the other is kind of more where you're at along the process and what, what kind of fits your needs the best. Michael Hingson  38:09 But at least there is a process that gives you options, and that's always good. Absolutely, patent laws, I well, I won't say it's straightforward, but given you know, in in our country today, we've got so many different kinds of things going on in the courts and all that, and sometimes one can only shake one's head at some of the decisions that are made regarding politics and all that, but that just seems to be a whole lot more complicated and a lot less straightforward than what you do With patent law? Is that really true? Or are there lots of curves that people bend things to go all sorts of different ways that make life difficult for you? Devin Miller  38:50 Um, probably a little bit of both. I think that it so. The law, legal system in general, is a much more slower moving enemy, so it does have a bit more of a kind of a basis to anticipate where things are headed in general. Now, the exception is, there always is an exception to the rule. Is that anytime the Supreme Court gets involved with patent law cases, I'd say 95% of the time, they make it worse rather than better. So, you know, you get judges that none of them are really have an experience or background in patent law. They've never done it. They really don't have too much familiarity with it, and now they're getting posed questions that are fairly involved in intricate and most of the time when they make decisions, they make it worse. It's less clear. You know, it's not as great of understanding, and it otherwise complicates things more. And so when you get the Supreme Court involved, then they can kind of make it more difficult or kind of shake things up. But by and large, it is a not that there isn't a lot of or involved in going through the process to convince the patent and examiner the patent office of patentability and make sure it's well drafted and has the it's good of coverage and scope, but at least there is, to a degree, that ability to anticipate. Hate, you know what it what's going to be required, or what you may likely to be looking at. You know? The other exception is, is, you know, the, ironically, I think the patent office is the only budget or producing or budget positive entity within all of the government. So every other part of the government spends much more money than they ever make. The Patent Office is, I think the, I think the postal office at one point was the other one, and they have, now are always in the in the red, and never make any money. But, you know, they are the patent office. Now, the problem with that is, you think, great, well now they can reinvest. They can approve, they should have the best technology, they should be the most up to date. They should have, you know, all the resources because they're self funding, and yet, there's always a piggy bank that the government goes to raid and redirects all those funds to other pet projects. And so, or the patent office is always, perpetually underfunded, as ironic as that is, because they're getting, always getting the piggy bank rated, and so with that, you know, they are, if you're to go into a lot of the patent office, their interfaces, their websites or databases, their systems, it feels like you're the onset of the or late 90s, early 2000s as far as everything goes. And so that always is not necessarily your question, but it's always a bit aggravating that you know you can't, as an example, can't submit color drawings. People ask, can you submit videos? Nope, you can't submit any videos of your invention, you know, can you provide, you know, other types of information? Nope, it's really just a written document, and it is line drawings that are black and white, and you can't submit anything beyond that. So there's one where I think eventually it will sometime, maybe shift or change, but it's going to be not anytime soon. I don't think there's any time on the horizon, because they're kind of stuck it once they move, moved over to the lit or initially onto the computer system, that's about where that evolution stopped. Michael Hingson  41:51 Well, the other thing though, with with videos, especially when you get AI involved and so on, are you really seeing a video of the invention. Or are you seeing something that somebody created that looks great, but the invention may not really do it. So I can understand their arguments, but there have to be ways to deal with that stuff. Devin Miller  42:13 Yeah, and I think that even be prior to AI, even we just had, you know, videos been around for 20 or 30 years, even, you know, digital format or longer. That probably, and the problem is, I think it's more of the search ability. So if you have a drawing, you can more easily search drawings and compare them side by side, and they'll do it. If you have a video, you know what? What format is the video? And is it a, you know, dot movie, or dot MOV, or is it.mp for is it color? Is it black and white? How do you capture it? Is it zoomed in as a kind of show all the details? Or is it zoomed out? And I think that there's enough difficulty in comparing video side by side and having a rigid enough or standardized format, the patent office said, man, we're not going to worry about it. Yes, so we could probably figure something out, but that's more work than anybody, any administration or any of the directors of the patent office ever want to tackle so it's just always kind of kicked down the road. Michael Hingson  43:06 Do they ever actually want to see the invention itself? Devin Miller  43:12 Not really, I mean, you so the short answer is no. I mean, they want to see the invention as it's captured within the the patent application. So the problem Michael Hingson  43:21 is, the drawing, they don't want to see the actual device, or whatever it is, well, and a lot Devin Miller  43:24 of times, you know as a inventors, they you know as a patent applicants, as the inventors and the owners, you're saying, hey, but I want to show them the invention. Problem is, the invention doesn't always mirror exactly what's showing in the patent application. Because you're on generation three of your product patent application is still in generation one, yeah, and so it doesn't mirror, and so the examiners are supposed to, they don't always, or aren't always good, and sometimes pull things and they shouldn't, but they're supposed to just consider whatever is conveyed in the patent application. Yeah, it's a closed world. And so bringing those additional things in now you can, so technically, you can request a live in office interview with the examiner, where you sit down live. You can bring in your invention or other or details and information, and when you do it live, face to face with an interview, you can walk them through it. Most very few people attorneys ever do that because one clients aren't going to want to pay for you to one of the offices, put you up in a hotel, you know, sit there, spend a day or two to or with the examiner to walk them through it. It just adds a significant amount of expense. Examiners don't particularly like it, because they have to dedicate significantly more time to doing that. Yeah, they're allotted, so they lose they basically are doing a lot of free work, and then you're pulling in a lot of information that they really can't consider. So you technically can. But I would say that you know, the likelihood of the majority of attorneys, 99 point whatever, percent don't do that, including myself. I've never been to do a live or live one, just because it just doesn't, it doesn't have enough advantage to make it worthwhile. Michael Hingson  44:58 Well, in talking about. About the law and all the things that go on with it. One of the things that comes to mind is, let's say you have somebody in the United States who's patenting, or has made a patent. What happens when it all goes to it gets so popular, or whatever, that now it becomes an international type of thing. You've got, I'm sure, all sorts of laws regarding intellectual property and patents and so on internationally. And how do you get protection internationally for a product? Devin Miller  45:32 File it in each country separately. So, you know, there are people, and I understand the inclinations, hey, I want to get a worldwide or global patent that covers everything in every country. The short answer is, you can't. I mean, technically, you could, if you file a patent into every country separately, nobody, including when I used to work or do work for companies including Intel and Amazon and Red Hat and Ford. They don't have patents in every single country throughout the world because they just don't have enough marketplace. You know, you go to a very small, let's say, South African country that you know, where they just don't sell their product enough in it, it just doesn't make the sense, or the courts or the systems or the patent office isn't well enough to find, or it's not enforceable enough that it just doesn't capture that value. And so there isn't a ability to have a global, worldwide patent, and it really is one where you have to file into each country separately. They each have their own somewhat similar criteria, still a different, somewhat similar process, but they each have their own criteria in their process that has to go through examination. So when you're looking at you know when you want to go for whether it's in the US or any other country, when you're deciding where you want to file it, it's really a matter of what marketplaces you're going to be selling the product into. So if you look at it and you know, I have as an example, some clients that 95% of their marketplace is all in the US, that's where they anticipate, that's probably where they're going to sell it. Well, yes, you could go and find, if you have 2% of your marketplace in Japan, you could go file a patent and get it into Japan, but you have such a small amount of your marketplace that's probably there that it doesn't make sense. And vice versa will have as an example. And a lot of times in the medical devices, they'll a lot of times file both in the EU as well as in the US, because those are two of the predominant medical device and are places where a lot of innovation is going on, where there's a lot of focus on utilization, development, medical devices, and there's just a lot of that demand. And so you're really going to look at it is which, where's your marketplace. The other times are the people, a lot of times, they'll get tripped up on so they'll say, Well, I probably need to file into China, right? And I said, Well, maybe because the inclination is, well, everybody just goes to China. They'll knock off the product. And so I want to have a patent in China so that I can, you know, fight against the knockoffs. And that isn't while I again, understand why they would ask that question. It wouldn't be the right way to convey it. Because if you if all it is is they you have no real, you know, no desire, no plan, to go into China. You're not going to sell it. You're not going to build a business there. If they're knocking it off and just just doing it in China, so to speak, then they're not. There isn't going to be a need to file a patent in China, because you don't have any marketplace in there. There's nothing really to protect. And if somebody makes it in China as a just picking on China, making as an example, and imports it into the US, you can still enforce your patent or otherwise do or utilize it to stop people from importing knock off because it's in the US, because they're, yeah, exactly, they're selling it, importing it, or otherwise doing activities in the US. So it's really a matter of where your marketplace is, not where you think that somebody might knock it off. Or, Hey, I'm gonna get a try and get a global patent, even though my marketplace is really in one or two spots. Michael Hingson  48:38 What about products like, say, the iPhone, which are commonly used all over. Devin Miller  48:44 Yeah, they're going to do, they'll do a lot of countries. They still Michael Hingson  48:47 won't do. They'll still do kind of country by country. Devin Miller  48:50 Yeah, they'll now, they'll do a lot of countries. Don't get me wrong, a lot of right. Phones are sold throughout the world, but they'll still look at it as to where it is, and they still have, you know, issues with them. So one of the interesting tidbits as an example, so going back and rewinding your time, taking apple as an example. You know, they came out with, originally, the iPod, then they had iPhone, and then they had the iPad. Now the question is, when they originally came out with their watch, what did they call it? 49:17 Apple Watch? Apple Watch. Now, why Devin Miller  49:20 didn't they call the I wash, which is what it made sense. It goes right along with the iPhone, the iPad, the iPhone, you know, the all of those iPod on that. And it was because somebody had already got a trademark in China that was for a different company, unrelated to the apple that had it for the iWatch. And so when Apple tried to go into the country, they tried to negotiate. They tried to bully. They weren't able to successfully get the rights or to be able to use I wash within China. China was a big enough market, and so they had and rather than try and split it and call it the I wash everywhere but China and trying to have the Apple Watch in China, they opted to call it the Apple Watch. Now I think they might. Of eventually resolve that, and I think it's now can be referred to as the I watch, I'm not sure, but for, at least for a long period of time, they couldn't. They called it the Apple Watch when they released it, for that reason. So even if you have, you know, a big company and one of the biggest ones in the world, you still have to play by the same rules. And why, you can try and leverage your your size and your wealth and that to get your way, there's still those, there's still those hindrances. So that's kind of maybe a side, a side note, but it's kind of one that's interesting. Michael Hingson  50:30 So that's the trademark of how you name it. But how about the technology itself? When the Apple Watch was created, I'm assuming that they were able to patent that. Devin Miller  50:39 Yeah, they will have, I'm sure they probably have anywhere from 30 to 100 to 200 I mean, they'll have a significant amount of patents, even it's just within the Apple Watch, everything from the screen, the display, how it's waterproof, how it does communications, how does the battery management, how does the touch, how does the interface, all of those are going to be different aspects that they continue to, you know, did it originally in the original Apple Watch, and are always iterating and changing as they continue to improve the technology. So generally, you know that, I'm sure that you will start out with as a business of protecting you're getting a foundational patent where you kind of protect the initial invention, but if it's successful and you're building it out, you're going to continue to file a number of patents to capture those ongoing innovations, and then you're going to file it into all of the countries where you have a reasonable market size that makes it worthwhile to make the investment. Michael Hingson  51:32 So if you have a new company and they've got a name and all that, what should new businesses do in terms of looking and performing a comprehensive search for of trademarks and so on to make sure they are doing the right thing. Devin Miller  51:49 Yeah, a couple of things. I mean, it wanted, if you're it depends on the size of company, your budget, there's always the overlay of, you know, you can want to do everything in the world, and if you don't have the budget, then you have to figure out what goes in your budget. But if I'll take it from kind of a startup or a small business perspective, you know, you first thing you should do is just as stupid and as easy as it sounds, you should go do a Google search. Or, now that you have chat GPT, go do a chat BT search and a Google search. But, you know, because it's interesting as it sounds, or, you know, is you think that, oh, that's, you know, kind of give me or an automatic I'll have still even till today, people come into my office. They'll say, Hey, I've got this great idea, this great invention, and a Lacher getting a patent on it, and they'll start to walk me through it. I'm like, you know, I could have sworn I've seen that before. I've seen something very similar. We'll sit down at my desk, take two minutes, do a Google search, and say, so is this a product that you're thinking of? Oh, yeah, that's exactly it. Okay. Well, you can't really get a patent on something that's already been invented and out there, and so, you know, do a little bit of research yourself. Now there is a double edged sword, because you can do research and sometimes you'll have one or two things happen. You'll not having the experience and background, not entirely knowing what you're doing. You'll do research, and you'll either one say, Hey, I've done a whole bunch of research. I can't really find anything that's similar. When, in fact, there's a lot of similar things out there. There's a patent, and people will say, yeah, it's the same, it's the same invention, but my purpose is a little bit different. Well, you can't if it's the exact same or invention. Whether or not you say your purpose is different, doesn't get around their patent and same thing on a trademark. Yeah, their brand's pretty much 53:20 identical, but they're Devin Miller  53:21 doing legal services and I'm doing legal tools, and so it's different, and it's, again, it's one where there's there they have a false sense of security because they rationalize in their head why it's different, or vice versa. You also get people that will say, Hey, this is even though it's significantly different, it's the same purpose. And so while, while they really could go do the product, while they could get a patent or a trademark, because they think that it's just overall kind of the same concept, then they talk themselves out of it when they don't need to. So I would say, start out doing some of that initial research. I would do it if I was in their shoes, but temper it with, you know, do it as an initial review. If there's something that's identical or the same that's out there, then it gives you an idea. Probably, you know, you're not going to be able to add a minimum, get or patent their intellectual property protection, and you may infringe on someone else's but if you you know, if there's, there's some differences, or have to do that initial research, that's probably the time, if you're serious about, you know, investing or getting business up and going, you've probably engaged an attorney to do a more formal search, where they have the experience in the background and ability to better give a better understanding or determination as to whether or not something presents an issue. Michael Hingson  54:32 Yeah, well, that's understandable. If I've developed something and I have a patent for it, then I suddenly discovered that people are selling knockoffs or other similar devices on places like Amazon and so on. What do you do about that? Because I'm sure there must be a bunch of that that that does go on today. Devin Miller  54:53 Yeah, yes, it does. I mean, I wouldn't say it's not as probably as prevalent as some people think. In other words, not every single. Product, right, being knocked off. Not everything is copied. Sometimes it's because, you know, either I don't have the ability, I don't have the investment, I don't have the, you know, it's not as big enough marketplace, I don't have the manufacturing, I don't have the connections, or it is simply, am respectful, and I'm not going to go do a discord because I'm not going to try and rip off, you know, what I think is someone else's idea. So it doesn't happen that as frequently as I think sometimes people think it does, but it certainly does occur. You know, there's a competitive marketplace, there's a profit incentive, and if there's a good product that's out there that people think they can do something with, and there's a motivation to do it, either because people are unaware that it's an issue, or that they they're unaware that they can't copy it or is protected. And so if you get into that, you know, there's a few potentially different recourses. One is, you know, a lot of times you'll start out with the cease and desist.

One of the most popular guests on the podcast has been Joe Carlucci, owner of Valentina's Pizzeria & Wine Bar. Joe made his first appearance back in 2022 on episode 22 and made an instant impact with the audience. He came back for two more episodes to have Joe update Troy on the progress of his new store and it also seemed only fitting to have Joe join Troy for the big milestone 100th episode. In this episode, we focus on a fundraiser to support January "Human Trafficking Awareness Month". The fundraiser was in connection with Destiny Rescue group out of Indiana. Why is this subject so controversial? Troy and Joe discuss this and many other things to include a secret plan for perhaps another restaurant in the not so distant future.For more information on Joe and Valentina's visit https://valentinaspizzeria.comHost/Interviewer: M. Troy Bye, Owner, Our Town with Troy Bye, a brand of the Our Town Company, LLC 00:00 Start02:00 Getting Portnoy's Attention06:50 Valentina's Update10:00 Coke or Pepsi16:00 Pepsi of Decatur Customer Service20:58 Joe's New Book24:04 Human Trafficking Awareness Month32:13 Prior Episodes on Trafficking37:10 Why No Focus/Attention/Interest on this Topic43:08 Alarming Stats50:02 Concerning Current Events01:04:14 Fundraiser with Destiny Rescue01:07:15 New Restaurant?Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5NjTsQ72k00C5n7ghLapAWatch on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0JwD62zXPncMeFeQdTVomHAudio only available in all other platforms where you get your podcasts.Follow us on social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/our-town-w-troy-bye-50033a234/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourtownpodcast/

David and I began building oilfield heat exchangers in a heavy steel fabrication shop in Oklahoma when we were 14 years old. We were universally known as, “them schoolboys.”Steel shops are notoriously noisy, but when we heard “Schooolboy!” ring out above the cacophony of hammers and grinders, we would swivel our heads toward the sound and begin walking toward whomever was looking at us.“Hard, dirty and dangerous” describes the work and the men we worked with.To call them “drunks, deviants, and derelicts” would certainly be less kind, but no less accurate.There were also 8 or 9 solid family men, most of whom were foremen and supervisors.The oil coolers we built were the size of a two-car garage. And several times a day these metal monsters would be lifted 5 or 6 feet off the ground by an overhead crane and go swinging through the air to another part of the shop as far as 300 feet away.Heavy steel flying through the air is entirely unforgiving. One of my responsibilities was to drive injured guys to the hospital. But few of my bloody passengers were injured in accidents. Most of them were injured in fistfights with coworkers.When we were both 16, David and I were joined by a boy named Jay. Dark hair, dark eyes, and skin that was decidedly not English, Irish, Scottish, or German. We liked him immediately.David put a quarter into the machine and yanked a Pepsi from its mechanical jaws. He handed it to Jay and asked, “Are you some kind of Puerto Rikkan or something?”Jay scowled and said, “No, I ain't no dang Rikkan.”David smiled, clicked his Pepsi bottle against the one that Jay was holding, took a long drink, then said, “It's good to meet you, Rikkan.”We found out later that Jay was Italian, but his name was Rikkan from that day forward.A few days later, Rikkan began calling David “Cliff” and my name somehow became “Dean.” Rikkan never told us why he chose those names, but he refused to call us anything else, so David and I fell into line. I began calling him Cliff and he began calling me Dean.Jay, David and Roy became Rikkan, Cliff and Dean for the next 3 years. Utterly absurd, but completely true.Devin Wright has a sparkling laugh and I've always enjoyed hearing it.So when Devin began working with me 20 years ago, I would walk into his office each afternoon and ask a ridiculous question. Devin would laugh his sparkling laugh and I would walk away smiling.One day I popped my head into his office and looked at him quizzically, as though I was confused. He looked back at me, equally puzzled. With a completely straight face, I asked “Did you get a spray tan?”For once, Devin didn't laugh. He vigorously denied it, utterly aghast that I would ever think that he was so vain and shallow that he would ever stoop to such a ridiculous…I quit listening after that.So now you know how “Spraytan” was born.Jacob Harrison became “Boxwine” in a similar fashion,Dave Cullen became “Skunkmeat”Howard Wolowitz became “Fruit Loops”George Costanza became “KoKo”and Jeffrey Eisenberg became “Jet.”No, “Jet” is not a reduction of Jeffrey.When we agreed to meet for lunch last week, Jeffrey suggested by text that we meet at 1300 hours.I texted him back, “I never knew that you were in the Air Force. Did you fly fighter jets?”If all of this sounds lowbrow, redneck, hick, uncultured, ill-refined, outmoded, outdated, dinosaur-ish and in poor taste, I agree.But no one can spend 4 impressionable years working with drunks, deviants, and derelicts and walk away without at least one bad habit.Roy H. WilliamsDean Rotbart is taking a short Sabbatical from Monday Morning Radio for the next few weeks to travel across America gathering detailed...

In this episode, Bill Scherkenbach, one of W. Edwards Deming's closest protégés, and host Andrew Stotz discuss why leadership decisions shape outcomes far more than frontline effort. Bill draws on decades of firsthand experience with Deming and with businesses across industries. Through vivid stories and practical insights, the conversation challenges leaders and learners alike to rethink responsibility, decision-making, and what it truly takes to build lasting quality. Bill's powerpoint is available here. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussions with Bill Scherkenbach, a dedicated protégé of Dr. Deming since 1972. Bill met with Dr. Deming more than a thousand times and later led statistical methods and process improvement at Ford and GM at Dr. Deming's recommendation. He authored the Deming Route to Quality and Productivity at Deming's behest and at 79, still champions his mentor's message: Learn, have fun, and make a difference. The discussion for today is, I think we're going to get an answer to this question. And the question is: Where is quality made? Bill, take it away.   0:00:44.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Where is quality made? I can hear the mellifluous doctor saying that. And the answer is: In the boardroom, not on the factory floor. And over and over again, he would say that it's the quality of the decisions that the management make that can far outweigh anything that happens on the shop floor. And when he would speak about that, he would first of all, because he was talking to the auto industry, he would talk about who's making carburetors anymore. "Nobody's making carburetors because it's all fuel injectors," he would say. And anyone who has been following this, another classic one is: Do you ever hear of a bank that failed? Do you think that failed because of mistakes in tellers' windows or calculations of interest? Heck no. But there are a whole bunch of other examples that are even more current, if you will. I mean, although this isn't that current, but Blockbuster had fantastic movies, a whole array of them, the highest quality resolutions, and they completely missed the transition to streaming. And Netflix and others took it completely away from them because of mistakes made in the boardroom. You got more recently Bed Bath & Beyond having a great product, a great inventory.   0:02:51.4 Bill Scherkenbach: But management took their eyes off of it and looked at, they were concerned about stock buybacks and completely lost the picture of what was happening. It was perfect. It was a great product, but it was a management decision. WeWork, another company supplying office places. It was great in COVID and in other areas, but through financial mismanagement, they also ended up going bust. And so there are, I mean, these are examples of failures, but as Dr. Deming also said, don't confuse success with success. If you think you're making good decisions, you got to ask yourself how much better could it have been if you tried something else. So, quality is made in the boardroom, not on the factory floor.   0:04:07.9 Andrew Stotz: I had an interesting encounter this week and I was teaching a class, and there was a guy that came up and talked to me about his company. His company was a Deming Prize from Japan winner. And that was maybe 20, 25 years ago. They won their first Deming Prize, and then subsidiaries within the company won it. So the actual overall company had won something like nine or 10 Deming Prizes over a couple decades. And the president became...   0:04:43.5 Bill Scherkenbach: What business are they in?   0:04:45.5 Andrew Stotz: Well, they're in...   0:04:47.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Of winning prizes?   0:04:48.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I mean, they definitely, the CEO got the distinguished individual prize because he was so dedicated to the teachings of Dr. Deming. And he really, really expanded the business well, the business did well. A new CEO took over 15 years ago, 10 years ago, and took it in another direction. And right now the company is suffering losses and many other problems that they're facing. And I asked the guy without talking about Deming, I just asked him what was the difference between the prior CEO and the current one or the current regimes that have come in. And he said that the prior CEO, it was so clear what the direction was. Like, he set the direction and we all knew what we were doing. And I just thought now as you talk about, the quality is made at the boardroom, it just made me really think back to that conversation and that was what he noticed more than anything. Yeah well, we were really serious about keeping the factory clean or we used statistics or run charts, that was just what he said, I thought that was pretty interesting.   0:06:06.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Absolutely. And that reminds me of another comment that Dr. Deming was vehement about, and that was was the management turnover. Turnovers in boardrooms every 18 months or so, except maybe in family businesses. But that's based on the quality of decisions made in the boardroom. How fast do you want to turn over the CEOs and that C-suite? So it's going to go back to the quality is made in the boardroom.   0:06:50.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I think maybe it's a good chance for me to share the slide that you have. And let's maybe look at that graphic. Does that makes sense now?   0:07:00.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure, for sure.   0:07:02.2 Andrew Stotz: Let's do that. Let's do that. Hold on. All right.   0:07:15.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, okay, okay. You can see on the top left, we'll start the story. I've got to give you a background. This was generated based on my series of inputs and prompts, but this was generated by Notebook LM and based on the information I put in, this is what they came up with.   0:07:48.6 Andrew Stotz: Interesting.   0:07:50.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Based on various information, which I think did a fairly decent job. In any event, we're going to talk about all of these areas, except maybe the one where it says principles for active leadership, because that was the subject of a couple of our vlogs a while ago, and that is the three foundational obligations. And so the thing is that quality, even though Dr. Deming said it was made in the boardroom, one of the problems is that management did not know what questions to ask, and they would go, and Dr. Deming railed against MBWA, management by walking around, primarily because management hadn't made the transition to really take on board what Dr. Deming was talking about in profound knowledge. And that is, as you've mentioned, setting that vision, continually improving around it, and pretty much absolutely essential was to reduce fear within the organization.   0:09:25.9 Bill Scherkenbach: And so management by walking around without profound knowledge, which we've covered in previous talks, only gets you dog and pony shows. And with the fear in the organization, you're going to be carefully guided throughout a wonderful story. I mentioned I was in Disney with some of my granddaughters over the holidays, and they tell a wonderful story, but you don't ever see what's behind the scenery. And management never gets the chance because they really haven't had the opportunity to attain profound knowledge. So that's one of the things. I want to back up a little bit because Dr. Deming would... When Dr. Deming said quality is made at the top, he only agreed to help companies where the top management invited him, he wasn't out there marketing. If they invited him to come in, he would first meet with them and they had to convince him they were serious about participating, if not leading their improvement. And given that, that litmus test, he then agreed to work with them. Very few companies did he agree to on that. And again as we said, the quality of the decisions and questions and passion that determine the successfulness of the company. And so.   0:11:40.0 Andrew Stotz: It made me think about that letter you shared that he was saying about that there was, I think it was within the government and government department that just wasn't ready for change and so he wasn't going to work with it. I'm just curious, like what do you think was his... How did he make that judgment?   0:12:00.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, it wasn't high enough. And again, I don't know how high you'd have to go in there. But quite honestly, what we spoke about privately was in politics and in the federal government, at least in the US, things change every four years. And so you have management turnover. And so what one manager, as you described, one CEO is in there and another one comes in and wants to do it their way, they're singing Frank Sinatra's My Way. But that's life….   0:12:49.3 Andrew Stotz: Another great song.   0:12:50.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Another, yes.   0:12:52.1 Andrew Stotz: And it's not like he was an amateur with the government.   0:12:57.5 Bill Scherkenbach: No.   0:13:00.3 Andrew Stotz: He had a lot of experience from a young age, really working closely with the government. Do you think that he saw there was some areas that were worth working or did he just kind of say it's just not worth the effort there or what was his conclusions as he got older?   0:13:16.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, as he got older, it might, it was the turnover in management. When he worked for Agriculture, although agriculture is political, and he worked for Census Bureau back when he worked there, it wasn't that political, it's very political now. But there was more a chance for constancy and more of a, their aim was to do the best survey or census that they could do. And so the focus was on setting up systems that would deliver that. But that's what his work with the government was prior to when things really broke loose when he started with Ford and GM and got all the people wanting him in.   0:14:27.0 Andrew Stotz: I've always had questions about this at the top concept and the concept of constancy of purpose. And I'm just pulling out your Deming Route to Quality and Productivity, which, it's a lot of dog ears, but let's just go to chapter one just to remind ourselves. And that you started out with point number one, which was create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs. One of my questions I always kind of thought about that one was that at first I just thought he was saying just have a constancy of purpose. But the constancy of purpose is improvement of product and service.   0:15:13.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, yes and no. I mean, that's what he said. I believe I was quoting what his point number one was. And as it developed, it was very important to add, I believe, point number five on continual improvement. But constancy of purpose is setting the stage, setting the vision if you will, of where you want to take the company. And in Western management, and this is an area where there really is and was a dichotomy between Western and Eastern management. But in Western management, our concept of time was short-term. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And he had a definite problem with that. And that's how you could come up with, well, we're going to go with this fad and that fad or this CEO and that CEO. There was no thinking through the longer term of, as some folks ask, "what is your aim? Who do you think your customer base is now?" don't get suckered into thinking that carburetors are always going to be marketable to that market base. And so that's where he was going with that constancy of purpose. And in the beginning, I think that was my first book you're quoting, but also, in some of his earlier works, he also spoke of consistency of purpose, that is reducing the variation around that aim, that long-term vision, that aim.   0:17:19.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Now, in my second book, I got at least my learning said that you've got to go beyond the logical understanding and your constancy of purpose needs to be a mission, a values and questions. And those people who have who have listened to the the previous vlogs that we've had, those are the physiological and emotional. And I had mentioned, I think, that when when I went to GM, one of the things I did was looked up all the policy letters and the ones that Alfred Sloan wrote had pretty much consistency of three main points. One, make no mistake about it, this is what we're going to do. Two, this is why we're going to do it, logical folks who need to understand that. And to give a little bit of insight on on how he was feeling about it. Sometimes it was value, but those weren't spoken about too much back then. But it gave you an insider view, if you will. And so I looked at that, maybe I was overlooking. But I saw a physiological and emotional in his policy letters.   0:19:00.7 Bill Scherkenbach: And so that's got to be key when you are establishing your vision, but that's only the beginning of it. You have to operationalize it, and this is where management has to get out of the boardroom to see what's going on. Now, that's going to be the predictable, and some of your clients, and certainly the ones over in Asia, are speaking about Lean and Toyota Production System and going to the Gemba and all of those terms. But I see a need to do a reverse Gemba and we'll talk about that.   0:19:49.6 Andrew Stotz: So, I just want to dig deeper into this a little bit just for my own selfish understanding, which I think will help the audience also. Let's go back in time and say that the, Toyota, let's take Toyota as an example because we can say maybe in the 60s or so, they started to really understand that the improvement of product quality, products and service quality and all that was a key thing that was important to them. But they also had a goal of expanding worldwide. And their first step with that maybe was, let's just say, the big step was expanding to the US. Now, in order to expand to the US successfully, it's going to take 10, maybe 20 years. In the beginning, the cars aren't going to fit the market, you're going to have to adapt and all that. So I can understand first, let's imagine that somebody says our constancy of purpose is to continuously improve or let's say, not continuously, but let's just go back to that statement just to keep it clear. Let's say, create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs.   0:21:07.2 Andrew Stotz: So the core constancy in that statement to me sounds like the improvement. And then if we say, okay, also our vision of where we want to be with this company is we want to capture, let's say, 5% of the US market share within the next 15 years or five or 10 years. So you've got to have constancy of that vision, repeating it, not backing down from it, knowing that you're going to have to modify it. But what's the difference between a management or a leadership team in the boardroom setting a commitment to improvement versus a commitment to a goal of let's say, expanding the market into the US. How do we think about those two.   0:21:53.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well as you reread what I wrote there, which is Dr. Deming's words and they led into the, I forget what he called it, but he led into the progression of as you improve quality, you improve productivity, you reduce costs.   0:22:33.6 Andrew Stotz: Chain reaction.   0:22:34.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, the chain reaction. That's a mini version of the chain reaction there. And at the time, that's what people should be signing up for. Now the thing is that doesn't, or at least the interpretations haven't really gone to the improvement of the board's decision-making process. I mean, where he was going for was you want to be able to do your market research because his sampling and doing the market research was able to close the loop to make that production view a system, a closed-loop system. And so you wanted to make sure that you're looking far enough out to be able to have a viable product or service and not get caught up in short-term thinking. Now, but again, short-term is relative. In the US, you had mentioned 10 or 20 years, Toyota, I would imagine they still are looking 100 years out. They didn't get suckered into the over-committing anyway to the electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids, yes, hybrids yes, very efficient gas motors, yes. But their constancy of purpose is a longer time frame than the Western time frame.   0:24:27.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, that was a real attack on the structure that they had built to say when they were being told by the market and by everybody, investors, you've got to shift now, you've got to make a commitment to 100% EVs. I remember watching one of the boardroom, sorry, one of the shareholder meetings, and it's just exhausting, the pressure that they were under.   0:24:55.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Yep, yep. But there... Yeah.   0:25:00.0 Andrew Stotz: If we take a kid, a young kid growing up and we just say, look, your main objective, and my main objective with you is to every day improve. Whatever that is, let's say we're learning science.   0:25:17.3 Bill Scherkenbach: You're improving around your aim. What is your vision? What are you trying to accomplish? And that obviously, if you're you're saying a kid that could change otherwise there'd be an oversupply of firemen.   0:25:38.5 Andrew Stotz: So let's say that the aim was related to science. Let's say that the kid shows a really great interest in science and you're kind of coaching them along and they're like, "Help me, I want to learn everything I can in science." The aim may be a bit vague for the kid, but let's say that we narrow down that aim to say, we want to get through the main topics of science from physics to chemistry and set a foundation of science, which we think's going to take us a year to do that, let's just say. Or whatever. Whatever time frame we come up with, then every day the idea is, how do we number one improve around that aim? Are we teaching the right topics? Also, is there better ways of teaching? Like, this kid maybe learns better in the afternoon and in the morning, whereas another kid I may work with works better in another... And this kid likes five-minute modules and then some practical discussion, this kid likes, an hour of going deep into something and then having an experiment is when we're talking about improvement, is the idea that we're just always trying to improve around that aim until we reach a really optimized system? Is that what we're talking about when we're talking about constancy of purpose when it comes to improving product and service?   0:27:14.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a whole process that I take my clients through in coming up with their constancy of purpose statement. And the board should be looking at what the community is doing in the next five years, 10 years, where the market is going, where politics is going, all sorts of things. And some of it. I mean, specifically in the science area, it's fairly well recognized that the time of going generation to generation to generation has gone from years to maybe weeks where you have different iterations of technology. And so that's going to complicate stuff quite honestly, because what was good today can be, as Dr. Deming said, the world could change. And that's what you've got to deal with or you're out of business. Or you're out of relevance in what you're studying. And so you have to... If you if you have certain interests, and the interests are driven... It's all going to be internal. Some interests are driven because that's where I hear you can make the most money or that's where I hear you can make the most impact to society or whatever your internal interests are saying that those are key to establishing what your aim is.   0:29:25.7 Andrew Stotz: Okay. You've got some PowerPoints and we've been talking about some of it. But I just want to pull it up and make sure we don't miss anything. I think this is the first text page, maybe just see if there's anything you want to highlight from that. Otherwise we'll move to the next.   0:29:43.0 Bill Scherkenbach: No I think we've we've covered that. Yeah, yeah. And the second page. Yeah, I wanted to talk and I only mentioned it when the Lean folks and the Agile folks talk about Gemba, they're pretty much talking about getting the board out. It's the traditional management by walking around, seeing what happens. Hugely, hugely important. But one of the things, I had one of my clients. Okay, okay. No, that's in the the next one.   0:30:29.4 Andrew Stotz: There you go.   0:30:30.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, yeah. I had one of one of my clients do a reverse Gemba. And that is, that the strategy committee would be coming up with strategies and then handing it off to the operators to execute. And that's pretty much the way stuff was done in this industry and perhaps in many of them. But what we did was we had the operators, the operating committee, the operations committee, sit in as a peanut gallery or a, oh good grief. Well, you couldn't say a thing, you could only observe what they were doing. But it helped the operators better understand and see and feel what the arguments were, what the discussions were in the strategy, so that they as operators were better able to execute the strategy. And so not the board going out and down, but the folks that are below going up if it helps them better execute what's going on. But vice versa, management can't manage the 94%, and Dr. Deming was purposely giving people marbles, sometimes he'd say 93.4%. You know the marble story?   0:32:37.5 Andrew Stotz: I remember that [laughter]. Maybe you should tell that again just because that was a fun one when he was saying to, give them marbles, and they gave me marbles back.   0:32:45.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he said there was this professor in oral surgery that said there was a an Asian mouse or cricket, whatever, that would... You put in your mouth and they would eat all of the... Be able to clean the gums of all the bacteria better than anything. And described it in detail. And that question was on the test. Okay, please describe this mouse procedure. And he said all of the people, or a whole bunch of people except one, gave him back exactly step by step that he had taught. And one said, Professor, I've talked to other professors, I've looked around, I think you're loading us, that's what Deming said. And so he made the point that teaching should not be teachers handing out marbles and collecting the same marbles they they handed out. And so to some extent, he was testing, being overly precise.   0:34:12.8 Bill Scherkenbach: He wanted people to look into it, to see, go beyond as you were speaking of earlier, going beyond this shocking statement that there perhaps is some way that that really makes sense. So he wants you to study. Very Socratic in his approach to teaching in my opinion. And any event, management can't understand or make inputs on changing what the various levels of willing workers, and you don't have to be on the shop floor, you can be in the C-suite and be willing workers depending on how your company is operating. Go ahead.   0:35:12.0 Andrew Stotz: So let me... Maybe I can, just for people that don't know, Gemba is a Japanese word that means "the actual place," right? The place where the value is created.   0:35:23.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure.   0:35:26.2 Andrew Stotz: And the whole concept of this was that it's kind of almost nonsense to think that you could sit up in an office and run something and never see the location of where the problem's happening or what's going on. And all of a sudden many things become clear when you go to the location and try to dig down into it. However, from Dr. Deming context, I think what you're telling us is that if the leader doesn't have profound knowledge, all they're going to do is go to the location and chase symptoms and disrupt work, ultimately...   0:36:02.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Get the dog and pony shows and all of that stuff. And they still won't have a clue. The thing is...   0:36:08.6 Andrew Stotz: So the objective at the board level, if they were to actually go to the place, the objective is observation of the system, of how management decisions have affected this. What is the system able to produce? And that gives them a deeper understanding to think about what's their next decision that they've got to make in relation to this. Am I capturing it right or?   0:36:40.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a lot more to it, I think, because top management, the board level, are the ones that set the vision, the mission, the values, the guiding principle, and the questions. And I think it's incumbent on the board to be able to go through the ranks and see how their constancy of purpose, the intended, where they want to take the place is being interpreted throughout the organization because, and I know it's an oversimplification and maybe a broad generalization, but middle management... Well, there are layers of management everywhere based on their aim to get ahead, will effectively stop communication upstream and downstream in order to fill their particular aim of what they want to get out of it. And so this is a chance for the top management to see, because they're doing their work, establishing the vision of the company, which is the mission, values and questions, they really should be able to go layer by layer as they're walking around seeing how those, their constancy, their intended constancy is being interpreted and executed. And so that's where beyond understanding how someone is operating a lathe or an accountant is doing a particular calculation, return on invested capital, whatever.   0:38:47.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Beyond that, I think it's important for management to be able to absolutely see what is happening. But the Gemba that I originally spoke about is just the other way. You've got the strategy people that are higher up, and you have the operations people that are typically, well, they might be the same level, but typically lower. You want the lower people to sit in on some higher meetings so they have a better idea of the intent, management's intent in this constancy of purpose. And that will help them execute, operationalize what management has put on paper or however they've got it and are communicating it. It just helps. So when I talk about Gemba, I'm talking the place where the quality is made or the action is. As the boardroom, you need to be able to have people understand and be able to see what's going on there, and all the way up the chain and all the way down the chain.   0:40:14.4 Andrew Stotz: That's great one. I'm just visualizing people in the operations side thinking, we've got some real problems here and we don't really understand it. We've got to go to the actual place, and that's the boardroom[laughter]. It's not the factory line.   0:40:31.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yes. Absolutely. And if the boardroom says you're not qualified, then shame on you, the boardroom, are those the people you're hiring? So no, it goes both ways, both ways.   0:40:46.8 Andrew Stotz: Now, you had a final slide here. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about some of the things you've identified here.   0:40:53.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, that's getting back to, in the logical area of this TDQA is my cycle: Theory, question, data, action. And it's based on Dr. Deming and Shewhart and Lewis saying, where do questions come from? They're based on theory. What do you do with questions? Well, the answers to questions are your data. And you're just not going to do nothing with data, you're supposed to take action. What are you going to do with it? And so the theory I'm going to address, the various questions I've found helpful in order to, to some extent, make the decisions better, the ability to operationalize them better and perhaps even be more creative, if you will. And so one of the questions I ask any team is, have you asked outside experts their opinion? Have you included them? Have you included someone to consistently, not consistently, but to take a contrarian viewpoint that their job in this meeting is to play the devil's advocate? And the theory is you're looking for a different perspective as Pete Jessup at Ford came up with that brilliant view of Escher's.   0:42:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Different perspectives are going to help you make a better decision. And so you want to get out of the echo chamber and you want to be challenged. Every team should be able to have some of these on there. What's going to get delayed? The underlying theory or mental model is, okay, you don't have people sitting around waiting for this executive committee to come up with new things, time is a zero-sum game. What's going to get delayed and what are they willing to get delayed if this is so darn important to get done? Decision criteria. I've seen many teams where they thought that the decision would be a majority rule. They discuss and when it came down to submit it, they said, "no, no, this VP is going to make the decision." And so that completely sours the next team to do that. And so you have to be, if you're saying trust, what's your definition of trust? If the people know that someone is going to make the decision with your advice or the executive's going to get two votes and everyone else gets one, or it's just simple voting.   0:44:35.3 Bill Scherkenbach: The point is that making the decision and taking it to the next level, the theory is you've got to be specific and relied on. Team turnover, fairly simple. We spoke about executive turnover, which was a huge concern that Dr. Deming had about Western management. But at one major auto company, we would have product teams and someone might be in charge of, be a product manager for a particular model car. Well, if that person was a hard charger and it took product development at the time was three and a half years, you're going to get promoted from a director level to a VP halfway through and you're going to screw up the team, other team members will be leaving as well because they have careers. You need to change the policy just to be able to say, if you agree that you're going to lead this team, you're going to lead it from start to finish and to minimize the hassle and the problems and the cost of turnover, team turnover. And this is a short list of stuff, but it's very useful to have a specific "no-fault policy."   0:46:20.6 Bill Scherkenbach: And this is where Dr. Deming speaks about reducing fear. I've seen teams who know they can really, once management turns on the spigot and says, let's really do this, this is important, the team is still hesitant to really let it go because that management might interpret that as saying, "well, what are you doing, slacking off the past year?" As Deming said, "why couldn't you do that if you could do it with no method, why didn't you do it last year?" but the fear in the organization, well, we're going to milk it. And so all of these things, it helps to be visible to everyone.   0:47:23.0 Andrew Stotz: So, I guess we should probably wrap up and I want to go back to where we started. And first, we talked about, where is quality made? And we talked about the boardroom. Why is this such an important topic from your perspective? Why did you want to talk about it? And what would you say is the key message you want to get across from it?   0:47:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: The key message is that management thinks quality's made in operations. And it's the quality of the... I wanted to put a little bit more meat, although there's a lot more meat, we do put on it. But the quality of the organization, I wanted to make the point depends on the quality of the decisions, that's their output that top leaders make, whether it's the board or the C-suite or any place making decisions. The quality of your decisions.   0:48:28.9 Andrew Stotz: Excellent. And I remember, this reminds me of when I went to my first Deming seminar back in 1990, roughly '89, maybe '90. And I was a young guy just starting as a supervisor at a warehouse in our Torrance plant at Pepsi, and Pepsi sent me there. And I sat in the front row, so I didn't pay attention to all the people behind me, but there was many people behind me and there was a lot of older guys. Everybody technically was pretty much older than me because when I was just starting my career. And it was almost like these javelins were being thrown from the stage to the older men in the back who were trying to deal with this, and figure out what's coming at them, and that's where I kind of really started to understand that this was a man, Dr. Deming, who wasn't afraid to direct blame at senior management to say, you've got to take responsibility for this. And as a young guy seeing all kinds of mess-ups in the factory every day that I could see, that we couldn't really solve. We didn't have the tools and we couldn't get the resources to get those tools.   0:49:47.9 Andrew Stotz: It just really made sense to me. And I think the reiteration of that today is the idea, as I'm older now and I look at what my obligation is in the organizations I'm working at, it's to set that constancy of purpose, to set the quality at the highest level that I can. And the discussion today just reinforced it, so I really enjoyed it.   0:50:11.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, that's great. I mean, based on that observation, Dr. Deming many times said that the master chef is the person who knows no fear, and he was a master chef putting stuff together. And we would talk about fairly common knowledge that the great artists, the great thinkers, the great producers were doing it for themselves, it just happened that they had an audience. The music caught on, the poetry caught on, the painting caught on, the management system caught on. But we're doing it for ourselves with no fear. And that's the lesson.   0:51:11.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Well, I hope that there's a 24-year-old out there right now listening to this just like I was, or think about back in 1972 when you were sitting there listening to his message. And they've caught that message from you today. So I appreciate it, and I want to say on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, of course, thank you so much for this discussion and for people who are listening and interested, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And of course, you can reach Bill on LinkedIn, very simple. He's out there posting and he's responding. So feel free if you've got a question or comment or something, reach out to him on LinkedIn and have a discussion. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and it doesn't change. It is, "people are entitled to joy in work."

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's part two of our Cola Wars double feature! This week we discuss the history of Coke's little bro Pepsi. We talk about the interesting reason it was first created and numerous scandals involving them over the last century from marketing mishaps to suspicious substances in their cans.

In this deeply personal episode of the AART Podcast, host Chris Stafford sits down with acclaimed American film editor Jazzy Kettenacker for an intimate conversation about life, identity, and a career shaped by storytelling. Rather than focusing on technical process, this episode explores the human journey behind the edit — the experiences, values, and turning points that have defined Jazzy's path in film and beyond. Jazzy Kettenacker reflects on growing up with a creative instinct, discovering film as a way to make sense of the world, and how editing became not just a profession but a way of thinking and living. She speaks candidly about navigating the film industry, finding her voice as an artist, and the emotional intelligence required to shape stories that resonate. This is a conversation about resilience, intuition, and the unseen labor that gives films their emotional rhythm. Throughout the episode, Jazzy opens up about the realities of sustaining a creative life — the doubts, the breakthroughs, and the personal evolution that comes with long-term artistic work. Her story highlights the importance of trust, collaboration, and empathy, revealing how an editor's sensibility is deeply intertwined with who they are as a person. The AART Podcast is known for thoughtful, biographical conversations with artists across disciplines, and this episode is no exception. Chris guides the discussion with warmth and curiosity, creating space for reflection on creativity, identity, and what it truly means to build a life in the arts. Whether you're a filmmaker, artist, or simply someone interested in honest creative journeys, this episode offers rare insight into the inner life of a film editor whose work — and perspective — is shaped by lived experience.BIOJazzy Kettenacker, a St. Louis native and full-time Editor at BSS Outpost, is known for her dynamic editing style and relentless work ethic. A Hollins University graduate and Premiere Pro wiz, she's collaborated with top brands like The North Face, Disney+, MLS, Rolling Stone, Under Armour, Pepsi, and FX. Jazzy's dedication to creative excellence drives her to push boundaries and redefine cinematic storytelling.  Born in 199 in Columbia, MI, Jazzy is the only child of Donna Garrett, a lieutenant for the St. Louis Police Department, and Lynn Hard, a retired Home School Communicator.  She attended Compton-Drew Middle School, Webster Groves High School and Hollins University—an all women's University in Roanoke, VA. Her love for film and the process of filmmaking that she learned in college guided her to a career that began behind the camera before she realized the magic for her was to be found in the edit suite. With experience across the genres, Jazzy has now found her metier in documentary film.Keywords:Jazzy Kettenacker, Jazzy Kettenacker film editor, American film editor, film editing career, women in film, film industry stories, creative life podcast, artist biography podcast, AART Podcast, Chris Stafford podcast, film editor interview, life in film, creative identity, storytelling in cinema, behind the scenes film, artist conversations, biographical podcast, independent film voicesHost: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramAART on FacebookEmail: theaartpodcast@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aart--5814675/support.A Hollowell Studios ProductionInstagram: @theaartpodcast Email: hollowellstudios@gmail.com© Copyright: Chris Stafford | Hollowell StudiosAll Rights Reserved

Per approfondire gli argomenti della puntata: Altre pillole dal 45 a oggi : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNGzCF04vi4&list=PLpMrMjMIcOkkDwQQVtLtYa1BczFWc-R5f&index=1&ab_channel=LaBibliotecadiAlessandria Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Boockvar, Chief Investment Officer at One Point BFG Wealth Partners and author of The Boock Report, sees "bells ringing" on the AI tech trade with Oracle, CoreWeave, and Nvidia showing tiredness, and warns the question is whether the baton can be passed to other sectors without the market falling apart. His three favorite groups for 2026 are energy (where $60 oil is "one of the cheapest assets in the world" and he sees $70+ minimum), agriculture (fertilizer stocks like Mosaic and Nutrient), and beaten-down consumer staples offering "bond-like dividend yields with equity-like upside." On Venezuela, he disagrees with the oil-for-midterms thesis - it's really about stiff-arming China, Russia, and Iran, and won't impact oil supply for 5-10 years anyway. He's been trimming silver after its vertical move toward $100 but still likes gold driven by central bank buying and dollar diversification. His biggest concern: if we lose the AI trade, its dominance is so large it could take everything down with it.This episode is brought to you by VanEck. Learn more about the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF: http://vaneck.com/REMXJuliaLinks: Substack/The Boock Report: https://boockreport.com/Twitter/X: https://x.com/pboockvarTimestamps:00:00 Intro and welcome Peter Boockvar01:18 2025 retro: World markets did really well, fire lit under international markets03:15 Bells ringing on AI tech trade - Oracle, CoreWeave, Nvidia tiredness05:45 China competition in AI - models more applicable, monetizing faster06:30 Bifurcated economy: Manufacturing recession, lower-middle income spending weak07:45 Data center build out - question of when not if it slows08:30 Delta earnings: Premium cabin strong, main cabin no growth09:15 Europe bifurcated too: Germany/France struggling, Spain/Greece doing well11:36 Three favorite groups for 2026: Energy, ag, consumer staples12:15 Energy: Bearish sentiment extreme, contrarian setup, CFTC net longs at 15-year lows13:30 Venezuela: 5-10 years before notable production increase14:15 OPEC production lagging quotas - most running at full capacity15:00 US shale production slowing, rolling over even in Permian15:45 Peak oil demand pushed out - hybrids winning, EV demand delayed16:30 Ag: Fertilizer stocks - Mosaic, Nutrient - down and out value plays17:15 Consumer staples destroyed over 12 months - deep value now17:52 Names: Kimberly Clark, Nestle, Pepsi, ConAgra, Coke, Reynolds18:24 Oil at $60 is one of the cheapest assets in the world - sees $70 minimum19:15 Energy holdings: Exxon, BP, Shell, Canadian Natural Resources, Oxy, Noble, EQT23:44 Venezuela won't impact oil supply for 5-10 years - focused on near-term25:32 Inflation: Conflicting dynamics - services decelerating, goods inflation returning27:00 Next Fed chair will have inflation dilemma - sticky around 3%28:45 Services inflation could rebound in back half of 2026 as apartment supply absorbed29:01 Reaction to Powell subpoena30:09 Powell is done cutting - will be playing 18 holes in June31:28 Last Fed cut was not necessary - took neutral rate below 1%32:30 Need low and stable prices first, then labor market improves35:34 Gold north of $4,600 - levels don't surprise, maybe pace did36:27 Silver at $92 - trimming position, tree needs to take a breather37:30 Gold thesis: Central bank buying, dollar diversification has more legs38:49 2025 lesson: World woke up to opportunities outside mag seven40:22 What not to own: Mag seven, long duration bonds40:46 Japan matters for global rates - JGB yields rising, canary in coal mine42:00 Bullish emerging market local currency bonds - better finances, cheap currencies42:57 EM names: China, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia43:45 Biggest risk: Losing AI trade and gap up in long-term rates44:24 Optimism: Broadening out continues, international markets, commodity trade has legs45:03 Parting thoughts: Investors need to be flexible in their thinking

We're summoning the spirits this episode since we're all together. We're watching the 1986 film Witchboard and sipping on a crispy Pepsi-cola and Jack. Sip along as we listen to Brandon over-pronounce Ouija, watch Linda change her manicure and robe every scene, and see Jim profess his love to Brandon in a motel room (shirtless we might add). Will you tempt the spirits and play the board?Thanks for listening! Don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spookysips_podcast/Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/SpookySipsPodWebsite: https://spookysipspod.buzzsprout.com

In this episode of Compassion and Courage, Marcus speaks with MaryCay Durrant about her journey from the corporate world to healthcare, emphasizing the importance of compassionate communication, resilience, and the influence of nature in the workplace. They discuss the significance of orienting oneself to purpose, the power of partnership, and how nature can serve as a model for effective teamwork and leadership. MaryCay shares insights on how to cultivate calm, purpose, and joy in work, and the transformative potential of embracing vulnerability and connection in professional settings. Resources for you: More communication tips and resources for how to cultivate compassion: https://marcusengel.com/freeresources/Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusengel/Connect with MaryCay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marycaydurrant/Learn more about MaryCay's work: https://marycaydurrant.comLearn more about Marcus' Books: https://marcusengel.com/store/Subscribe to our podcast through Apple: https://bit.ly/MarcusEngelPodcastSubscribe to our podcast through YouTube: https://bit.ly/Youtube-MarcusEngelPodcast About MaryCay Durrant:Our guest today is speaker, facilitator, and change leadership and business performance consultant, MaryCay Durrant. For 30+ years, she has helped people reorient, from broken playbooks to systems and paradigms that rekindle the human spirit. From “doing, producing, and performing” to being, partnering and growing. MaryCay does this by illuminating a brilliant model, one that is alive in nature. Her work has touched thousands of senior leaders and at more than 100 companies including Johnson & Johnson, Deloitte, Pepsi, Hyatt, and healthcare leadership teams from academic medicine like The Children's Hospital Los Angeles to community systems like Health First in Brevard County Florida. Her Vibrant W.O.R.K. model is simple, refreshing - and it's what we all need today. It reorients people to the truth that we are built for change, meaning and optimistic action. And that when we feel stuck or challenged, it's not failure but feedback. For decades she has been asked to find ways to translate her Vibrancy Model to “every human” as our world has become more and more disconnected and machine-optimized. She has taken the task to heart and is on a mission to illuminate a vibrant path in life for 50,000 people through podcast interviews by the end of 2026. MaryCay's fresh perspective, practical tools and sense of wonder will help you find and sustain the “congruence” which is calm, purpose and joy we feel called towards in work and life. Date: 1/9/2026 Name of show: Compassion & Courage: Conversations in Healthcare Episode number and title: Episode 177 - Embracing Nature in Healthcare with MaryCay Durrant 

Travis Timmons shares with host Andrew Stotz how a decade of frustration running his physical therapy practice turned into joy once he discovered Deming's philosophy and embraced systems thinking. Through PDSA cycles, clearer processes, and genuine team involvement, he transformed Fitness Matters from chaotic growth to a scalable organization getting stellar outcomes. His story shows how small businesses can create stability, joy in work, and remarkable results by improving the system rather than pushing harder.   TRANSCRIPT   0:00:02.1 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today I'm here with featured guest Travis Timmons. Travis, are you ready to tell us about your Deming journey?   0:00:19.7 Travis Timmons: Hey Andrew, thanks for having me. And yeah, very excited to share our journey and how impactful it's been on both our company, but also me personally and my family. So, super excited to kind of share where we started before Deming and where we're at today. So I'll just dive right in if that sounds like a good...   0:00:39.9 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And I think just for the audience here, I'll just mention that Travis is physical therapist, founder and president of Fitness Matters in Columbus, Ohio, going on his 27th year of business. And you know, you and I have had some discussions. You've had a lot of great things that you've written and we've gone through and I think it's really an exciting story, particularly for a small mid sized business owner who's just frustrated as hell that things aren't going the way that they want. And I think your frustration a long time ago was a driving force. So I'm excited for you to share your story. So yeah, take it away.   0:01:22.6 Travis Timmons: Yeah, very excited. Yeah, 2000 is when we started, January 2000. So coming up on 27 years, as you mentioned, do physical therapy and wellness. And the first 10 years I was in business, pretty good at being a physical therapist. Started my own business and had no idea how to run a business. I knew a lot about physical therapy, but just kind of shooting from the hip in regard to business. Spent about a decade struggling, frustrated. We were growing, but growing slowly, growing chaotically. No process, it was just a, it was a heavy burden, to be honest with you. We were growing, but it was kind of Herculean effort on my part.   0:02:10.1 Andrew Stotz: I'm just curious how you were feeling at that time. Like there's gotta be a better way or this is the way business is and I just gotta muscle through this or how were you feeling at the time?   0:02:21.0 Travis Timmons: I was feeling frustrated and isolated. Didn't quite know where to turn. Yeah, I guess that's how, and just a burden. Didn't want to let the team down, I did not want the business to fail. I knew we had something different to offer. Just really had no idea how to scale that in a professional way. And along the journey was very fortunate to have a client who had a very successful business, took me under his wing. Ray Crook is his name. Started mentoring me and as luck would have it, he was familiar with Dr. Deming and a very long story short, after several meetings with him over time, some mentoring, I'd read the book along the way, the E-Myth Revisited and had some learnings from that book that really jumped out at me and came to the conclusion, both with reading that book and some feedback from Ray of basically, hey, it's time to grow up and turn this into a real business. If you're going to do this, let's do it right. And at that, around that time he introduced me to Kelly Allen with the Deming Institute. And you know, so we were 10 years into some chaos, had really no process, just would try stuff, see if it stuck or didn't.   0:03:43.5 Travis Timmons: If that didn't work, didn't really have any way to measure if stuff was working well. So really just a lot of chaos. And became introduced to Deming through Kelly Allen about 10 to 11 years into our journey and man, was that a breath of fresh air in terms of like having a direction to go in. After a few meetings with Kelly, him getting a better understanding of what was important to me, I think him just really understanding that I was serious about wanting to turn our organization into a large, professionally run and well run organization that would have a positive impact on people's lives, both team members and clients. I think he kind of, I think that we were so bad off he took pity on me to begin with, just to be honest with you, and he was like, man, this guy needs a lot of help. He could do some good in the world with what the services they have to offer. But if he doesn't figure out how to run a business professionally, they're never going to scale.   0:04:44.0 Andrew Stotz: And it's interesting that you reached out. I mean, there's a lot of people that are stuck in that situation and they really don't, either they don't reach out or they're afraid to reach out or you know, maybe they think there's no solution or nobody's going to help me. And you know, certainly when you're small, you also don't have huge budgets to hire people to come in and fix your business. You know, I'm just curious, like what drove you to even reach out?   0:05:09.8 Travis Timmons: I think I was fortunate enough to, A, have the mentor with Ray. And then secondly, have always been a believer in you got to check your ego at the door and know that you don't know everything. I think I've seen Business owners that are afraid to admit they don't know everything and so they keep things insulated and that just doesn't get you anywhere.   0:05:35.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah.   0:05:36.3 Travis Timmons: So I just was fortunate kind of how I was raised as arrogance isn't a good thing, so check your ego at the door and learn from, learn from people smarter than you. And so I kind of took that fully at heart and like, all right, I have no idea how to run a business. I need to learn how to do that from really smart people. Read a lot of business books over the years, but the Deming philosophy, when I was introduced to that at the two and a half day seminar, went to that. I got to the Deming two and a half day in, I think that was 2013. So I was 13 years into the entire journey by the time I had met with Kelly, done some learning. And then at a time where the Deming two and a half day was offered in Ohio to where I could get to it, to your point earlier, budget plays into things for small businesses. So I was able to drive to that one and that two and a half day seminar just opened my eyes up to things that I knew in my heart but had no idea how to make that happen.   0:06:46.2 Travis Timmons: And what I mean by that, Andrew, is one of the key things I took away from that first two and a half day is Deming's belief that roughly 96% of issues within an organization are not people issues, but they're process and system issues. And that aligned with my worldview of if you hire good people, which we did, they show up every day wanting to do a good job as long as they have a good system and process to work within something that's professionally put together. So that was takeaway number one that really resonated with me. And the person responsible for said system is me. There's no passing the buck as the owner. And that resonated with me. It's a big responsibility to own a business in terms of the people and clients you're responsible for. And there's no passing the buck. You're responsible for the system at the end of the day.   0:07:42.3 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. I remember when I was 24 attending Deming seminar, when I was working for Pepsi, and it was a little bit different situation than yours. I could see, though, the same thing resonated with me. I could see that people were hemmed in by the system. And even though many people in the factory had really good intentions and they wanted to do a better job, they literally couldn't because they didn't have the tools or the budget or the this or the that. And a lot of times it's easy for senior management, particularly in a big company, to say figure it out, your job is to figure it out. But that only goes so far and there's eventually a point of exasperation for people working in a company that, like, I just, there's a limit here and I'm not going to kill myself trying to do something that I can't change. And so it just, I was coming from a very different perspective as an employee in a huge company versus you at a perspective of, this is my company, I set the rules.   0:08:46.5 Travis Timmons: Yeah, can do whatever we want. And you mentioned something there. It reminds me of a quote from that first two and a half day, and it still sticks with me a decade and a half later. Almost a lot of businesses complain about the term. We have a lot of dead wood in terms of employees. And the quote, I remember Kelly sharing this, it's like, well, did you hire dead wood? Because if you did, that's on you. Or did you hire live wood and kill it and that's on you from your standpoint of, from a system. And I'm like, man, 100% true. And I hired, I had good people on our team, but we didn't have good processes to keep from killing that live wood I would say. So, yeah. And to your point on budget, yeah, I had and still do have quite a bit different budget than Pepsi. Right. So one of the other things that jumped out at me early on that made Deming very approachable and something I could engage with very easily as a small business owner was the concept of PDSAs, the Plan-Do-Study-Act.   0:09:58.5 Travis Timmons: That was a game changer for us because I was like, all right, I don't have to hire a big business consultant. We don't have to hire or pay for a bunch of software. There's very simple things we can do via the Plan, Do Study Act PDSA method that we can create systems or improve upon systems and those little experimental ways and not have to bet the farm. You know, you see a lot of businesses that try to go through these huge transformative activities, bring in a new software to fix all their problems. Things that are very expensive with no real way of understanding what their aim is, what their theory is, or even if it'll work. So, yeah, your comment on budget there, I think, is what makes Deming so approachable for any size organization, but the budget's really not a limit from the PDSA standpoint. So those were some of my key takeaways very early on on my first two and a half day Deming, it was an eye opener and just really resonated with how, how I saw the world in terms of from a human level. Just had zero idea as a physical therapist with no business training on how to implement and run a professional organization.   0:11:13.8 Travis Timmons: So as things evolved, kind of went from the kind of the term chaos to process. So after that two and a half day, I went back to our team, which was small at the time. I think we had, we were a very small company at the time. I think we had 10 employees, nine or 10 team members at the time and just presented to them like, hey, this is going to be how we run our organization. There's this thing I heard about this guy called Dr. Deming. Some of it's going to seem a little odd, but this is how we're going to do things. And just started out early on, like just with PDSA, educated them on what that meant and we're all going to work on things together. So immediately it started enforcing a culture of improvement and collaboration and voice. Rather than Travis just coming up with random ideas, we worked on them together, made the system visible and then put some experiments in place. I talked to them about operational definition. That was a new term to me and gave them some examples. We wanted every client to have a good visit with us.   0:12:29.2 Travis Timmons: What in the heck does a good visit mean? Right. We didn't have an operational definition of that, so we created an operational definition of this is a good visit at Fitness Matters. So those were some fun things early on.   0:12:42.3 Andrew Stotz: I'm curious. There's two things, the first one is for someone that really doesn't know anything about PDSA, the Plan, Do, Study, Act process or cycle. Could you give an example either of one that you did early on or one that you think is the best illustration of the application of PDSA so people can understand what you're saying, because I know it's a big part of what one of the, let's say, tools that you've used in your process.   0:13:10.1 Travis Timmons: Yeah, one of the early on ones we did that was fun to do with the team because it changed our pricing model for our private pay team. Quick example, like we do personal training and Pilates muscle activation technique. Traditionally in that world, people buy those visits one at a time or you'll buy a package of 10 or 20 at a time at a discounted rate, volume, volume pricing, right. So we had that, we had 10 pack and 20 pack of personal training. We had a 10 pack and 20 pack of Pilates, same for muscle activation technique. And we had clients that would do sometimes all three of those services, but for them to be able to optimize their discount, they had to buy a 20 pack of Pilates, a 20 pack of personal training, and then the same with muscle activation technique. So after learning some things with Dr. Deming at the two and a half day that Kelly presented at, it's like we got to be easier to do business with. Be easy to do business with and how can we do that? So our PDSA was how can we change our pricing model on the private pay services to be easier to do business with and optimize how clients can move in our system freely.   0:14:25.9 Travis Timmons: So part of the concept of PDSA is you trial it, you put your whole theory together of what you think will be true. How are you going to study it? How long are you going to try it? So we had four clients that we knew well, that we told them, we're trying this new pricing model. Would you be willing to experiment on this with us? So we didn't roll it out company wide. We just tried it with a small segment, and we called it Fitness Matters Dollars and the do the Fitness Matters Dollars package. Then the client could use that discounted bundle of money for any of our services. So the discount applied to any of the services they did rather than having to buy a bunch of different packages. So the beauty of it is you can try it small. Had we gotten it wrong, we could have thrown it out and only five clients would have experienced the error. And they knew they were part of an experiment and they were happy to help us improve. It was a big win. That was 12 years ago. That's still how we do our pricing today.   0:15:29.1 Travis Timmons: It makes it very easy for clients to optimize their health within our system and not have to spend a bunch of money with us and have a lot of monetary resistance moving about our system. So that's one example that comes to mind.   0:15:41.4 Andrew Stotz: That's a good one. And I think if you think about, let's say an accountant may say, well, but wait a minute, the cost of three different services is different and that's the idea of how do we simplify this for the client, and that's interesting. Now, did you write it down, did you go to a Whiteboard. How did you actually go through that process?   0:16:02.9 Travis Timmons: Oh, that's 13 years ago. You're testing my...   0:16:06.5 Andrew Stotz: Oh, well, you can think about a current one, too.   0:16:09.6 Travis Timmons: 12 years ago. Yeah. When we're doing a current one, we'll get together as a team. Like, we're having our annual team off-site the end of January. And we'll come up, we try to come away with three, maybe four PDSAs as a team, and we'll write it up on the whiteboard. What's the problem we're trying to solve? Another key quote I've learned from Kelly Allen over the years is "the problem named, is the problem solved." So we want to make sure we're naming the right problem first. What really is the problem? So we talk about that through our entire company so that I'm getting feedback from all pieces of the system and then we'll map it out. Sometimes we'll do fishbone charts to look where in the process are we trying to do an experiment? And then there's the PDSA kind of chart that we'll use for bigger ones so we can study it. What's our aim? What's our theory? What do we think is going to happen with this experiment? How long are we going to study it, and what's our expected outcome? So part of the PDSA magic, as you know, is what are you trying to accomplish by what method, in what time frame, and what do you think is going to happen so you can go back and test your theory after you've studied it? So, yeah, sometimes we, if it's something bigger system-wide, we put it down on paper. We have a PDF that's fillable for each new PDSA.   0:17:35.5 Andrew Stotz: And for some people listening, they may think, well, I mean, isn't that what business does? I mean like owner comes up with an idea and says, yeah, I think we could try this and see what happens. Right. And ultimately everybody's kind of poking in the dark in business. We're not given a manual nobody really knows what we're doing. What's the difference between the way that you are poking in the dark, trying to hey, let's try this, let's try that compared to the PDSA.   0:18:08.5 Travis Timmons: I don't think I learned that till my second Deming two and a half day. So the second time I went, I took some senior team members with me so we could get more eyes around what in the world is this Deming person, who is Dr. Deming? What's this System of Profound Knowledge? To answer your question, I think the realization I had that I didn't have before, kind of going down the Deming journey is I didn't view our business as an entire system. I lacked that awareness of system view versus pieces and parts view. Pre-Deming, there's a problem over here and you go chase that fire and then another problem pop up over here, and to your point like there's lots of books out there on how to solve problems or you know, you hear like there's books out there on ownership thinking. And you know, it's like, well, do you have a culture and a system and by what method do you give people the ability to have that ownership thinking? Yeah, I think that's was the big aha of looking at the entire system. Whereas previously I was looking at it in silos and only trying to solve problems when a fire arose rather than system operationally efficient, trying to get efficient and optimizing the entire system. So that was probably one of the big aha's for me. Didn't happen day one. But as I got to understand Deming more, the system view of how it all has to be working together for optimization just changes your lens totally.   0:19:51.5 Andrew Stotz: So you've talked about PDSA, you've talked about operational definitions, you've talked about systems thinking, three core principles. One last thing on PDSA is like, I wonder what percent of the total value of doing PDSA comes from doing PDSA. In other words, the actual part of forcing yourself to get people in a room to discuss what's the problem, the Fishbone diagram, think about what's our aim, what's our theory, what's our hypothesis? Let's write that down. How are we going to study that? How we know if our hypothesis was true and you know, that type of thing. And sometimes I, after listening to you, I was thinking it, I suspect that a large amount of the final benefit you get from a PDSA is really front end loaded in all the work that you do to set it up.   0:20:48.3 Travis Timmons: Yeah, yeah. Going back to your comment earlier Andrew, on when you were at Pepsi, if I heard you correctly, you didn't really have the ability to share voice or to have an impact on the system. I think you're spot on, the PDSA itself, a couple things, number one as a small business owner, you got to check your ego at the door. Your team sees stuff happening that you don't have visibility on and they're probably going to have better ideas on how to fix it than you might if you're removed from it a step or two. And then the culture of like, oh, Travis is going to listen to my ideas. I find value in that. And then when we implement a change, like nobody likes change. Right? But when you've worked on it collectively as a team and you're ready to move forward with it, that's a game changer. You're not pushing a string at that point. Everybody's leaning in because they understand they're part of the solution and you're allowing that. Where a lot of businesses are top down, command and control, that doesn't usually work very well. So yeah, I think you're spot on, Andrew.   0:22:02.5 Travis Timmons: I think that so much happens with the PDSA process from a culture and team involvement. And if you don't have that, you're going to have a hard time retaining team members, in my opinion.   0:22:16.9 Andrew Stotz: So you look like a pretty relaxed guy compared to probably what you were like many years ago when this all was going on. Maybe take us through. Okay, so you're implementing these things and what's happening, what changes are happening, what transformation is going on with you and with your organization?   0:22:36.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah, so it's a multi-year process that we went through. Still a lot of work, you know, it's not like, hey, this just solves every problem. It just changes all the lenses you look through and you have a by what method path. Here's how we are going to think about our business. So that got rid of a lot of confusion for me. I knew how we were going to go from this size business to my, we had a BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal from Good to Great. We wanted to have four facilities. At the time I went through Deming, we had one. We wanted to have four facilities or more to see if we could replicate our high level of care, team member engagement, all those things. So we were working, I was working just as many hours then. It just was not frustrating, it was exciting. It was a lot of collaboration that was energizing and everything as we scaled got easier. I was not going to be able to scale our business with what I was doing because had I scaled it, the headaches would have just been out of control. The loss of revenue, like there would have just been so much inefficiency on our organization.   0:24:00.4 Travis Timmons: So I would say for that next from 2013 through 2018, we got really locked in. So we spent about, I was a little conservative at the time. I was also in Army National Guard, so had a trip across the pond and just wasn't quite at a point where I could financially roll the dice and start multiplying locations and stuff like that. But around 2018, 2019, we got to the point where the team knew Deming well. I felt like we put a lot of systems, processes in place that were replicatable and I'm like, all right, here comes a real big PDSA. We're going to go get another clinic, we're going to go do another location, and we're going to test it. So that was a big PDSA. A lot of the ones we had done up to that were small. At some point you got to go a little bigger. And we were very confident in our model. So we acquired a practice in our town and like, hey, 80% of what they do is what we do, 20% is not Deming and service lines and stuff like that. So our theory, our PDSA, was can we acquire and put Fitness Matters, culture and process in place and grow?   0:25:26.3 Travis Timmons: And we did. We were very successful with that. I had team member retention with that. You know, a lot of times when you buy out another business kind of, people head for the doors, including the owner. That owner is still working with us six years later, then we started growing. It's like, all right, here we go. We can do another one. We can do another one. Put leadership in place at each location that understand Deming. We have our processes written down. We have operational definitions written down. People know what PDSA is. If they're new to our team, it takes them about six months to figure out what all these acronyms mean. So now we're going quicker since, you know, since in the last four years, as an example, we've tripled our physical therapy volume and doubled our private pay wellness volume. And in the service line, that's fairly fast growth. Probably not fast in the IT world, but in the service line growth in a very competitive market with how physical therapy and referrals work. There aren't many private practices left out there because it's so competitive where we're thriving.   0:26:41.4 Andrew Stotz: It seems like a hard business. It seems like a hard business to scale because there's this personal aspect, there's this interaction. You know, think about the exact opposite. I don't know, let's say Instagram or whatever. There's zero personal interaction. It can scale to billions. What are the constraints to growth that you feel in your business.   0:27:03.3 Travis Timmons: So constraints are reimbursement from health insurance, referrals from physicians, because health care is consolidating. So a health care system buys up smaller organizations, physicians, and then they have physical therapy within those systems and then they're highly encouraged to refer their physical therapy in-house. So that's a big challenge for us. So we don't, we're not owned by physicians. So we have to, we have to be the best at what we do for physicians and clients to want to choose us. So one of the things Dr. Deming really big on at quality, right. You have to continually have a system that has improving quality as you grow. And the way we grow is we have our outcomes. So how well a patient does at the end of a plan of care is roughly 35% higher than national average. We're 35% above the competition because of our processes, our system, our clients, how we look at integrating our clients from the first visit, the first phone call, follow-on visits, the entire, again, thinking back to that system conversation. And I think a lot of businesses, if they haven't been exposed to Deming, they miss that very critical piece of, if your sales isn't aligned with your implementation, isn't aligned with your billing process, anywhere along that service line, going through that fishbone, if it's all not good, like we could give excellent physical therapy care, but if we have a horrible billing system, we lose clients, end of story. If we have a horrible process of answering the phone to schedule evaluations, we're out of business.   0:29:00.0 Travis Timmons: Could have the best physical therapists in the world. So, yeah, that's what it's allowed us to do from a scaling and fun standpoint. And kind of now almost 27 years in we're at a point where, one of the litmus tests I had, like, if we do this well, if we really are all-in on Deming and it's system process definitions and we have it mapped out, this should run without Travis. And I see a lot of business owners are the choke point. Like they want to be the problem solver for everything. Everything has to flow through them, slow stuff down. You're not getting all of the information from your team that could solve problems so much quicker. So one of my litmus tests early on was like, if this really works well, the business should run without me present certainly for weeks and weeks at a time. And we're there. So that's why I look Relaxed now. I didn't look this relaxed a decade ago. So, it's fun, it's fun.   0:30:11.5 Andrew Stotz: I was looking for my Out of the Crisis book, but I went online and I wanted to highlight two of the 14 points because it's something that you mentioned about improving your process and all of that. And the first one is the first point and you know, it's the first point for a reason. And number one is "create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive and stay in business and provide jobs." And number five is "improve constantly and forever, the system of production and service to improve quality and productivity and thus constantly decrease costs." So how do you embody that in your business, this, because when I first read the "constancy of purpose," I originally thought it meant pick your direction and stay constant with that. But then I started to realize, no, no, it's about how are we improving our product and service.   0:31:18.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah. So if you're not evolving with, technology is everywhere. Right. So if you're not paying attention to that within how it impacts your business and constantly trying to optimize how technology interfaces with your business, you're in trouble. So, like, we're right now getting ready to, I'd say once a year we do something fairly large within technology. Next year we're going to probably be changing our documentation software because there's a newer one out there that instead of having four different softwares we have to interface with, there'll be one. So that cuts down on rework, that cuts down on learning time for a new team member. There's less resistance for clients to understand how scheduling and billing work. So I don't know if I'm answering your question, Andrew, but I think from a standpoint of, I think it was Jack Welch I heard say years ago in an interview, "there's two ways a business is going. You're either growing or you're dying." And that resonated with me, there's no sitting still because if you do, you're going to get run over. So that's always looking through, can we make it easier to schedule?   0:32:40.0 Travis Timmons: Like right now we don't offer online scheduling for physical therapy. We will in 2026. And if we don't figure that out, it could be a reason that we would eventually go out of business. So I just looked through that mindset. There's always somebody coming after you.   0:32:58.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, yeah, that's...   0:33:00.3 Travis Timmons: Complacency doesn't work.   0:33:01.3 Andrew Stotz: I like to think about when I was young and I took a break and I stood still. I was standing on the flat ground, no problem. But now with my 87 year old mother, if she goes one day, two days, three days without movement, she's going backwards and it's harder to catch back up. And I start to realize she's operating on a plane that has been slanted against her. And eventually the slant will win against all of us. But in the world of business if you think, well it's not about growing or dying, well, there's someone out there trying to take your business by providing a better product or service. And that's just the reality that actually is invigorating to know that, and as Dr. Deming said to have a great competitor is such a valuable thing. If you're just poking around and you're doing okay in market you're probably not going to improve as much. So that the focus on improvement is something that I just find really fascinating. There's another question that I have which is these days, way I look at like the job of leadership is that it's like imagine a very strong magnet ahead of you and you're constantly pulled to that magnet.   0:34:37.7 Andrew Stotz: That magnet is the average, the consensus what everybody's doing. And you can't help but feel that force. And if you don't realize that you're being affected by that force, you're just being pulled into it. And what I mean by that is if you say, well, what if we tried something different, a different way of doing something and then you go to customers, no, sorry, your competitor does this. If you don't do that, I'm not going to give you the business. And so you're naturally drawn towards the center or towards consensus, but what you're doing is trying to pull your business and yourself and your thinking and your team away from that and saying there's a different way. And how hard is that?   0:35:24.4 Travis Timmons: It's hard. You have to have a different lens. Comment earlier, the problem named is the problem solved. One of the things, I love that analogy. I've never heard it described that way. In physical therapy it's very common for a physical therapist to have two or three patients scheduled at the same time because the problem that was named by most organizations is poor arrival rate. And if you have holes in your schedule you're not getting paid. So they look at that as a revenue loss. So to answer your question, that's where our industry is. Like you got a double, triple book or you're going to have lower revenue. Well, what that does is it increases, in my opinion, increases the likelihood that people are not going to come because they're going to have a bad experience, they're going to have poor outcomes. Physicians are going to stop referring because their patients aren't getting better. So problem named is the problem solved? And we pulled, I like that magnet. I'm going to use that one. But pulled away and said, no, if we provide one on one care at a very high level and the entire system works well for the patient, they're going to show up, they're going to continue to show up.   0:36:49.0 Travis Timmons: They're going to be happy to pay for the service we're offering because it's going to be exceptional. And because they show up, they're going to get better. And because they get better, they're going to go tell their doctor and then more doctors are going to refer to us. And that's thinking much differently. So that gets to the problem name, problem solved. Or using your magnet example, we are like, physicians come and talk to us all the time. They're like, are you really only seeing the patients one-on-one? Are you really doing that? Because nobody else says they can do that. It's like, yes, we are. That's exactly how we're doing it. And that's why you're here talking to us right now. Because it's so much different. You can't, there's some things that are just immeasurable. Like Dr. Deming talks about that quite a bit. We don't have to market, we don't spend... I shouldn't say, we don't have to market. We don't spend nearly the amount of money on marketing that our competitors do because we have physicians saying, hey, what's different over there? That's invisible. Right? That's invisible.   0:37:56.9 Andrew Stotz: And they weren't saying that in the beginning, but over the time they got that...   0:38:01.4 Travis Timmons: Yeah, yeah. It's a process, but you know, like the flywheel. We use that flywheel example. And now it's like, we're having a hard time hiring enough team members to keep up with the growth. One of the other thing's, "joy in work." Dr. Deming talks about joy in work a lot. And that's to your question earlier about continual improvement and jobs. So we exist, there's a lot of burnout in healthcare. You can't hardly open a business article.   0:38:37.7 Andrew Stotz: Seems paradoxical.   0:38:40.4 Travis Timmons: But it's because two and three patients at a time burdened with administrative stuff. So we also exist because, man, it's so fun when you have a team member join you from one of those other organizations and we've had eight new team members we've hired since July. And I have what I call a fresh eyes lunch with them a month in. And every one of them has said, my spouse can't believe how much happier and more enjoyable I am to be around. If that doesn't motivate you to want to continue to grow, I don't know what does. So that's the joy in work piece that Dr. Deming talked about a lot.   0:39:24.6 Andrew Stotz: And let's now talk about one other thing, which is I was just talking, I gave a speech last night in Bangkok to some business owners and then we had a dinner out and I was explaining to them that like, there's a disease that's come from America, not from Wuhan, China, in this case. It's come America, it's spread all across Thailand. And you really have to be careful with this disease. It's a deadly disease. And I said, and particularly Thailand, where there's harmony. People enjoy working together. They want a fun environment, they want to make friends at work. It's a little, it's very different from a US work environment where it's like, go there, deliver, go home, separate lives. That's not the way Thai people see work. And the disease is, the disease of individual KPIs and saying everybody, by optimizing each individual, we are optimizing the whole. And I'm trying to get them to realize like, there's another way. And I'm curious I'm sure if you're getting people from the bigger institutions and stuff, they're being KPI'd to death. And how do you, how do you manage the idea that I don't want to optimize the individual, I want to optimize the whole system, but yet I also want employees to know they gotta do a good job. So how do you manage that?   0:41:03.2 Travis Timmons: It's hard when somebody comes, because you're right, there's a lot of PTSD. I've got an example from today. So we turned on, within our system, there's a net promoter score that can be sent out to patients automatically after their first couple visits with us. And we turn it off and on from time to time just to get the voice of the customer, right. I think Dr. Deming talks about the voice of the customer and who all. So it's like, hey, we haven't done that in a while. We're going to turn it back on. And there were several therapists that were like, wait a minute, you're scoring me? And then if I get a low score, I'm in trouble. So we have to spend a lot of time educating the team on some of that old head trash. It's like, no, this is to study the system and where we can improve either improving our operational definition, whatever it is, give the team member tools on how to handle a difficult client. But to your point, you have, people's brains are so wired in the way you just described. So part of it is we, we let them know up front, like, here's why we don't have employee of the month at Fitness Matters.   0:42:15.4 Travis Timmons: Here's why we don't have the parking lot for employee of the month at Fitness. Like, all of those rewards, how all of the negative unintended consequences that can go along with that. Like even giving an individual an award in a group setting. Like, we had a team who's one of my clinic directors, the business she came from before, they had like a WWE, like the heavyweight wrestling, big champion belt. They had one of those. And each week somebody would give the belt to whoever they thought was the best employee that week. And she didn't get it for like two months in a row. And she was crushed. She's like, people don't like me. So it's fun to talk about the negative unintended consequences of the individual reward, the individual competitions. We could talk for an hour about motivating via monetary motivation. That's probably a whole nother podcast. But to answer your question, we have to make it very known why we don't do those things. Because as much as people hate some of that stuff, they also expect it. Yeah, why don't, why don't we have employee of the month? You mean I'm not going to get in trouble if I get a low net promoter score from one patient?   0:43:34.3 Travis Timmons: It's like, no, we know we hire good people. We know you do your best job every day. They could be upset because their billing didn't go correctly. So we just need to know. So I don't know if that answers your question, but it's a big thing because you do have to still track KPIs or you're out of business. Like, you do have to know what's going on within your system to measure it. It's just that concept of we all are responsible for the output of the system and the system has to produce exceptional results.   0:44:06.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, yeah.   0:44:07.9 Travis Timmons: And we have to have a weight by what method. We have to have a system to create whether you're doing plumbing, electrical work. Like if you're going to scale a business, you have to have a repeatable product that can scale.   0:44:23.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And one of the answers to that too is if you believe 94% of the problems come from the system, then even when an employee is identified as having a bad net promoter score, then the question is, does the 94% apply in that situation? Well, generally yes. And so let's dig in. I have some people that ask me like my, one of the guys last night at this event works for a bank and they have put KPIs into everything. And he was saying, I just can't escape. But another guy was like, well, I have my own business and I can do what I want. I've implemented KPIs, but what should I do? I said the first step in disentangling yourself from this individual KPI situation is just to disconnect compensation to the KPI. So just right there, there's still incentive for the employee to do something bad for the organization to do their best. But when you remove that compensation aspect, you've really taken away a huge part of the incentive. So even if you have to keep KPIs, take away the tie to compensation and then they say, well, that's the whole reason why we're supposed to do it is have the tie to compensation.   0:45:44.5 Andrew Stotz: And I said, yes, it's a little bit of a circular references cannot be resolved.   0:45:49.7 Travis Timmons: Right. Yeah. And I think we even give examples to the team as much as we can around why we don't do those type of things. Here's what would happen. And most people have worked in organizations when you point it out to them. So again, Dr. Deming talks about making the system visible. Point it out to them. If I bonused you like you see this, this used to be a thing at car dealerships. When you're buying a car, hey, you're going to get a call to rate your experience with me. If you don't give me a 10, it's going to impact my pay. And you're like, what? So we talk about that like hey, the net promoter score. If we did the same thing here and bonused you on every 10, then you're going to be bothering your patients to fill that survey out. Or if you're afraid they're going to give you low score, you're not going to, you're going to encourage them not to do it. And then me as the owner, I'm not going to hear about system breakdowns. So to answer your, I think it's an important thing that a lot of businesses like number one, don't tie compensation to your KPIs.   0:46:58.3 Travis Timmons: Like just, it's an output of the system and then explaining it to them and giving examples over time because their brains even though they hated it, like we don't do performance reviews, annual performance review. And people hate them. And I still get asked like hey, when are you doing my annual performance review? It's like do you want to do one? Well no.   0:47:21.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. We dropped performance appraisals in 2016 in my coffee business here in Thailand and we never looked back. We didn't come up with any particular stunning replacement. We just knew it was bad and we were willing to just walk away from what was bad. I want to wrap up and just get into the... What are the, let's talk about kind of extrinsic versus intrinsic. There's some external factors that we can say this Deming implementation provided these benefits to our company and then there's this internal or intrinsic benefits that you're getting. Maybe you can go through some of those benefits of where you're at now, what you're able to do now and we'll close it on that note of kind of what's the hope for somebody that's stuck in the situation. They're the entrepreneurial seizure, they're the technician, they're great at physical therapy, they start their physical therapy business and they're just scaling chaos basically. Tell us about, give us hope.   0:48:37.8 Travis Timmons: Yeah, no, happy to, the reason I have had the opportunity to speak in a lot of different settings about Dr. Deming and the reason I do it is because it's brought so much joy to me personally and to a ever growing team. It's having a positive impact on lives and the more I can do that, that gets to the intrinsic motivation. So the joy in work, there's a lot of bad organizations out there that just suck the life out of people. So that's my intrinsic motivation at this stage of the game of if Fitness Matters is bigger, so more jobs, there's more people having a positive experience in life and our outcomes being 35% higher, our community is getting healthier. So that's the intrinsic motivation at this stage. It's fun. I know again, we're not perfect. So continuous improvement to our conversation earlier. But the intrinsic motivation is the busier Fitness Matters gets, the busier Fitness Matters gets because of high outcomes and it's positive experience for more people in life. Extrinsically, I guess that gets to community outcomes. So that's intrinsic and extrinsic. You know, extrinsically, if you get this figured out, it's very easy to scale a business.   0:50:06.0 Andrew Stotz: And tell us about your scale, where are you at or where are your averages versus national averages? You know, what have you accomplished that's driving that external factors, let's call it.   0:50:19.4 Travis Timmons: Yeah. So a couple things. One, externally, a practice like ours nationally on average is growing at 9% to 10%. We're currently clipping along at 25% to 30%. So you know, that flywheel effect and chaos is no longer there. So we have process, so it's easier to scale. The other extrinsic piece is because of our outcomes and continuing scale, we're able to negotiate better rates with our insurance companies to reinforce our strong desire to keep one-on-one care model. So Deming talks about who all is part of your system. So insurance companies are part of our system and we don't have a lot of control over them. But because our data is so powerful externally, we have been able to negotiate higher rates than most of our competitors because our data speaks for itself.   0:51:23.2 Andrew Stotz: Faster growth, the ability to negotiate better terms because you're delivering better product and service generally means higher profit margins.   0:51:34.2 Travis Timmons: Yes.   0:51:34.6 Andrew Stotz: Fast growth with higher profit margins generally means you're generating more cash and you're no longer in cash crisis all the time and you have resources to decide, okay, now we want to expand or we want to invest or whatever.   0:51:50.9 Travis Timmons: Right.   0:51:51.4 Andrew Stotz: Is that...   0:51:51.9 Travis Timmons: Yeah, the cash crunch was real those first 10 years. So yeah, to your point, when you get to the other side of that and process is a big part of that so you're having a whole counting process, but yeah, you get to that size. But yeah, the intrinsic piece, one of the reasons I talk about Deming as much as I can. I've got two sons that are in college. My hope is there's more companies in the world today than there were 10 years ago that know about Deming, because that means there's a higher likelihood that my boys will work at a Deming company. And just seeing what a lot of companies do to people, we as owners have a big responsibility, I feel, we have a big responsibility to have a positive impact on our employees. And you're, as an owner, are responsible for that, in my opinion. And if you get it right, man, is it fun to look in the mirror or sit down with a team member or their spouse and be proud of, be proud of what you built. That's at the end of the day, the intrinsic motivation.   0:52:57.9 Travis Timmons: If you can be proud of what your product is and proud of the impact you're having on your team to where you're not sucking the life out of them, but actually intrinsically motivating them. There's not much else you can accomplish in business that was worth more than that, in my opinion.   0:53:18.5 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, wonderful. That's a great way to end it. What's the likelihood that our children are going to be working in a Deming company? Well, that's the whole reason why we are here talking about it. So, Travis, I want to say on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, I want to thank you for this discussion and of course, for listeners out there and viewers, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. This is your host, Andrew Stotz. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and I believe it's probably one of Travis's too people are entitled to joy in work.   0:53:56.0 Travis Timmons: Love it. Love it. Thank you, Andrew.   0:53:58.0 Andrew Stotz: Yep.

Hello New Listener! Are you new to CheapShow? Well, why not use this episode of the economy comedy podcast to dip your toes into the warm, inviting waters of thrifting, charity shops and snacks! Let the charming, witty hosts, Paul Gannon & Eli Silverman take you by the hand and present an edition of the podcast that gives you a little bit of everything CheapShow has to offer! There is nothing weird, unsettling, off-putting or inappropriate about this show. Nope. It's a perfectly normal thing to listen to! This week, we review some gummy snacks, a Nissin special edition instant noodle pot with a pumpkin spice twist, a Pepsi gingerbread concoction, listen to a few vinyl discoveries ranging from Disney disco to BBC story time adventures, and we also have to time to cram in a book that alleges to show you how to cheat at cards! It's a packed show – and we promise it's just as good as all those other comedy podcasts that you've heard about. Honest. See pics/videos for this episode on our website: https://www.thecheapshow.co.uk/ep-469-hello-new-listener www.patreon.com/cheapshow If you want to get involved, email us at thecheapshow@gmail.com For all other information, please visit: www.thecheapshow.co.uk Like, Review, Share, Comment... LOVE US! MERCH Official CheapShow Magazine Shop: www.cheapmag.shop Send Us Stuff: CheapShow PO BOX 1309 Harrow HA1 9QJ

Brandon and Jesse kick this sesh off on a deceptively simple question that always turns into a whole thing, how do you actually show love, like real love, not Instagram love, not “I posted a quote so I'm healed” love. And it starts in the most Brandon way possible, food. Not “I heated something up,” food, but “I'm trying to give you an experience” food. The kind where mac and cheese is not allowed to be mid, and even the boxed stuff somehow ends up feeling like a flex because you refuse to let a meal be boring if you're the one cooking.That rolls right into the part nobody talks about, love languages sound cute until you realize people are basically running different operating systems. Some people hug, some people avoid feelings like it's a sport, and some people show love by handing you something useful and acting like that counts as emotional intimacy. There's a whole little riff on how weird the holiday season is too, because no matter what you believe, December has that “aura,” like the world collectively cosplays being nicer for a minute. This year hits different though, court stuff in the background, kids in town, then kids gone, the emotional whiplash of closeness and absence back to back.Then you two take a hard left into the modern world being kind of… engineered. You talk about how life isn't “scripted” like a conspiracy, but it is shaped, nudged, fed, and filtered. Algorithms decide what you see, what you fear, what you think “everyone” thinks, and suddenly we're all yelling at each other like we're defending our favorite sports team. The perfect dumb metaphor lands, “I'm Coke and you're Pepsi,” and then immediately gets exposed for what it is, it's sugar water with bubbles, why are we acting like this is a holy war. That's the point, a lot of the division isn't even about reality anymore, it's about identity, dopamine, and what keeps people glued to their screens.From there it gets real in that way you guys do, not preachy, just honest. You talk about how hiding parts of yourself is basically self-rejection dressed up as “protecting the relationship.” The fear sounds like, “If you see this part of me, you won't love me.” And the truth is brutal and freeing, you're not even letting yourself be loved if you're always editing who you are. There's also a solid moment of perspective from stepping away from rigid religion years ago, and realizing you've seen more closeness and acceptance since, not less. More room for people to be whole, messy, complicated, and still worth loving.Save on Dr Dabber with Code: Cannabisschool10Save on Storz & Bickel with Code : CannabisschoolSave on Santa Cruz Shredder with Code: CSP10Save on Bomb Erigs with Code: CSPScore 100 on your test

We're taking a look back at some of our favorite episodes of 2025. This week on the Oakley Podcast, Megan Cummings and Dustin Eagle bring you another great episode as they welcome Fred & Jerome Levy. Fred is an Owner/Operator here at Oakley, and his son Jerome is already planning his trucking career. Fred, who started driving with Pepsi and transitioned to over-the-road trucking, discusses his career path and joining Oakley Trucking. Jerome, already knowledgeable in the industry, demonstrates an intense interest in trucking, using American Truck Simulator and already planning to start his own company in the future. The episode explores changes in the trucking industry, the importance of family values, understanding of trucking regulations, and truck models. Key takeaways include the evolving nature of trucking, the significance of mentorship even from parent to child, the potential for young, passionate individuals to innovate in the transportation industry, and so much more.Key topics in today's conversation include:Welcome to the Episode (0:46)Oakley Trucking Recruiting Needs (1:19)Celebrity Encounter Story (4:54)Preview of the Episode & Past Highlights (9:30)Introducing Fred and Jerome Levy (13:31)Fred's Early Trucking Career (17:35)Jerome's Introduction to Trucking and Passion for Trucks (20:45)Fred on Family, Purpose, and Jerome's Passion (24:43)Fred's Career Path Before Oakley (26:26)Fred's Experience at Oakley (30:01)Jerome's Business Aspirations (33:51)Changes in Trucking Over the Years (37:58)Trucking Regulations and Cleanliness (41:13)Jerome's Training and Future Plans (45:25)Generational Lessons and Family Support (47:41)Final Thoughts and Conclusion (49:12)Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Livestreaming the moment while dressed as a pink Power Ranger, the German web activist – styling herself as ‘Martha Root’ – said the site’s security was so weak it ‘would make even your grandma’s AOL account blush’. The Save Mart Center naming rights deal between the Fresno State Association and Pepsi, which is worth more than $1.5 million per year, expires this year. Will that impact debt service or student services that run through the Association, the non-profit auxiliary that owns the aging on-campus arena? Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Philip Teresi on KMJ' on all platforms: --- Philip Teresi on KMJ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. -- Philip Teresi on KMJ Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Podcast | Amazon | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nas Filipinas, em 1992, uma promoção da Pepsi levou o país à loucura. Mas algo deu errado e as consequências disso foram trágicas.Roteiro e Apresentação: Icles RodriguesEdição: João Victor VilaInstagram: ⁠⁠@iclesrodrigues⁠⁠Adquira o curso História: da pesquisa à escrita por apenas R$ 49,90 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICANDO AQUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Adquira o curso A Operação Historiográfica para Michel de Certeau por apenas R$ 24,90 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICANDO AQUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Adquira o curso O ofício do historiador para Marc Bloch por apenas R$ 29,90 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CLICANDO AQUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Colabore com nosso trabalho em ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠apoia.se/obrigahistoriaSÓ HOJE nosso cupom, somando com os descontos do site, pode te dar até 30% de desconto, e mais 10% se o pagamento for via PIX! Use o cupom HISTORIAFM ou acesse o site pelo link https://creators.insiderstore.com.br/HISTORIAFM #insiderstore

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk, and making sure that we’re building capabilities that actually integrate within the cloud service providers. And also consistently building a roadmap that aligns with the innovation that the cloud service providers are also building towards. [00:05:56] Darryl Peek: And then making sure that we’re a topic of discussion. So elastic. From a search capability, we do semantic search, vector search, but also retrieval augmented generation, which actually is LLM Agnostic. So when you say LLM Agnostic, whether you want to use Gemini, Claude or even Chad, GBT, those things are something that Elastic can integrate in, but it actually helps reduce the likelihood of hallucination. [00:06:18] Darryl Peek: So when we’re building that kind of solution, the cloud service provider’s you’re making it easy for us, and when you make it easy, you become very attractive and therefore you’re. Likely gonna come. So it becomes [00:06:28] Vince Menzione: sticky in that regard. Very sticky. So it sounds like very much an engineer, a lot of emphasis on the engineering aspects of the business. [00:06:35] Vince Menzione: I know you’re an engineer by background too, right? So the engineering aspects of the business means that you’re having alignment with the engineering organizations of those companies at a very deep level. [00:06:44] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. So I’m [00:06:45] Vince Menzione: here. [00:06:45] Darryl Peek: Yeah. And being at Elastic has been pretty amazing. So coming from Google, we had so many different solutions, so many different SKUs, but Elastic releases every eight weeks. [00:06:54] Darryl Peek: So right before you start to understand the last release, the next release is coming out and we’re already at 9.2 and we just released 9.0 in May. So it’s really blazing fast on the capability that we’re really pushing the market, but it’s really hard to make sure that we get it in front of our partners. [00:07:10] Darryl Peek: So when we talk about our partner enablement strategy, we’re just trying to make sure that we get the right information in front of the right partners at the right time, so this way they can best service their customers. [00:07:19] Vince Menzione: So let’s talk about partner strategy. Alyssa Fitzpatrick was on stage with me at our last event, and she Alyssa’s fantastic. [00:07:25] Vince Menzione: She is incredible. Yes, she is. She was a former colleague at Microsoft Days. Yes. And then she, we had a really interesting conversation. About what it takes, like being in, in a company and then working with the partners in general. And you have, I’m sure you have a lot of the similarities in how you have to engage with these organizations. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: You’re working across the hyperscalers, you’re also working with the ecosystem too. Yes. ’cause the delivery, you have delivery partners as well. Absolutely. So tell us more about that. [00:07:50] Darryl Peek: So we kinda look at it from a two, two ways from the pre-sales motion and then the post-sales. From the pre-sales side. [00:07:56] Darryl Peek: What we’re trying to do is really maximize our, not only working with partners, because within public sector, you need to get access to customers through contract vehicles. So if you want to get access to some, for instance, the VA or through GSA or others, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the right partners who have access to. [00:08:12] Darryl Peek: That particular agency, but also you want domain expertise. So as you’re working with those system integrators, you wanna make sure that they have capability that aligns. So whether it is a security requirement, you wanna work with someone who specializes in security, observability and search. So that’s the way that we really look at our partner ecosystem, but those who are interested in working with us. [00:08:30] Darryl Peek: Because everybody doesn’t necessarily have a emphasis on working with a new technology partner, [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: right? [00:08:36] Darryl Peek: So what we’re trying to do is saying how do we build programs, incentives and sales plays that really does align and strike the interest of that particular partner? So when we talk about it I tell my team, you have to, my grandfather to say, plan your work and work your plan. And if you fail a plan, you plan to fail. So being able to not only have a strong plan in place, but then execute against that plan, check against that plan as you go through the fiscal year, and then see how you come out at the end of the fiscal year to see are we making that progress? [00:09:01] Darryl Peek: But on the other side of it, and what I get stressed about with my sales team and saying what does partners bring to us? So where are those partner deal registrations? What is the partner source numbers? How are we creating more pipeline? And that is where we’re now saying, okay, how can we navigate and how can we make it easier? [00:09:17] Darryl Peek: And how can we reduce friction in order for the partner to say, okay, elastic’s easy to work with. I can see value in, oh, by the way, I can make some money with. [00:09:25] Vince Menzione: So take us through, have there been examples of areas where you’ve had to like, break through to this other side in terms of growing the partner ecosystem? [00:09:33] Vince Menzione: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked? Yes, I’d love to learn more about that. [00:09:36] Darryl Peek: I’ll say that and I tell my team one, you partner program is essential, right? If you don’t have an attractive partner program in regards to how they come on board, how they’re incentivized the right amount of margin, they won’t even look at you. [00:09:49] Darryl Peek: The second thing is really how do you engage? So a lot of things start with relationships. I think partnerships are really about relationships. I say I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? [00:10:07] Darryl Peek: Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. I like the what Matt brought up in saying, okay, talk to me when you have a win. Talk to me when you have something to talk about. [00:10:22] Darryl Peek: Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal. When you’re at end the quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, that doesn’t help ab absolutely. [00:10:28] Vince Menzione: So engineering organizations, sales organizations, what are, what does a healthy partnership look like for you? [00:10:35] Darryl Peek: So I look at metrics a lot and we use a number of tools and I know folks are using tools out there. [00:10:41] Darryl Peek: I won’t name any tools for branding purposes, but in regards to how we look at tools. So some things that we measure closely. Of course it’s our partner source numbers, so partner source, bookings, and pipeline. We look at our partner attached numbers and pipeline as well as the amount or percentage of partner attached business that we have in regards to our overall a CV number. [00:11:00] Darryl Peek: We also look at co-sell numbers, so therefore we are looking at not only how. A partner is coming to us, but how is a partner helping us in closing the deal even though they didn’t bring us the deal? We’re also looking at our cloud numbers and saying what amount of deals and how much business are we doing with our cloud service providers? [00:11:15] Darryl Peek: Because of course we wanna see that number go up year over year. We wanna actually help with that consumption number because not only are we looking at it from a SaaS perspective, but also if the customer has to commit we can help burn that down as well. We also look at influence numbers. [00:11:27] Darryl Peek: Now, one of the harder things to do within a technology business is. Capturing all that si goodness. And saying how do I reflect the SI if they’re not bringing me the deal? And I can’t attribute that amount of deal to that particular partner, right? And the way that we do that is we just tag them to the influence. [00:11:44] Darryl Peek: So we’re able to now track influence. And also the M-S-P-O-E-M work that we are also tracking and also we’re tracking the royalties. And lastly is the professional service work that we do with those partners. So we’re looking to go up into the right where we start them out at our select level, we go to our premier level and then our elite level. [00:12:00] Darryl Peek: But left and to the right, I say you gotta go from zero to one, one to five, five to 10, and then 10 to 25. So if we can actually see that progression. That is where we’re really starting to see health in the partnership, but also the executive alignment is really important. So when our CEO is able to meet with the fellow CEO of the co partner company that is really showing how we are progressing, but also our VPs and others that are engaged. [00:12:20] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we really do measure. We do have a health score card and also, we track accreditations, we track certifications as well as training outcomes based on our sales place. [00:12:30] Vince Menzione: Wow. There’s a lot of metrics there. Yeah. So you didn’t bring, you didn’t bring any slides with that out? [00:12:35] Darryl Peek: Oh, no. I’m not looking at slides, by the way. [00:12:40] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about marketplace. [00:12:42] Darryl Peek: All right? [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: Because we’ve had a lot of conversations about marketplace. We’ve got both vendors up here talking about marketplace and the importance of marketplace, right? You’ve been a Marketplace Award winner. We haven’t really talked about that, like that motion per se. [00:12:55] Vince Menzione: I’d love to s I’d love to hear from you like how you, a, what you had to overcome to get to marketplace, what the marketplace motion looks like for your organization, what a marketplace first motion looks like. ’cause a lot of your cut a. Are all your customers requiring a lot of direct selling effort or is it some of it through Marketplace? [00:13:14] Vince Menzione: Like how does it, how does that work for you? [00:13:15] Darryl Peek: So Elastic is a global organization. Yeah. So we’re, 40 different countries. So it depends on where we’re talking. So if we talk about our international business, which is our A PJ and EMEA business we are seeing a lot more marketplace and we’re seeing that those direct deals with customers. [00:13:28] Darryl Peek: Okay. And we’re talking about our mirror business. A significant amount goes through marketplace and where our customers are transacting with the marketplace and are listing. On the marketplace within public sector, it’s more of a resell motion. Okay. So we are working with our resellers. [00:13:39] Darryl Peek: So we work our primary distribution partner is Carahsoft. So you heard from Craig earlier. Yes. We have a strong relationship with Carahsoft and definitely a big fan of this organization. But in regards to how we do that and how we track it we are looking at better ways to, track that orchestration and consumption numbers in order to see not only what customers we’re working with, but how can we really accelerate that motion and really get those leads and transactions going. [00:14:03] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Very cool. And I think part of the reason why in, in the government or public sector space it has a lot to do with the commitments are different. Absolutely. So it’s not government agencies aren’t able to make the same level of commitments that, private sector organizations were able to make, so they were able to the Mac or Microsoft parlance and also a AWS’s parlance. [00:14:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:24] Darryl Peek: definitely a different dynamic. Yeah. And especially within the public sector. ’cause we have Gov Cloud to work with, right? That’s right. So we’re working with Microsoft or we’re working with AWS, they have their Gov cloud and then we Google, they don’t have a Gov cloud, but we still have to work with them differently. [00:14:35] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Within that space. That’s [00:14:36] Vince Menzione: right. That’s right. So it makes the motion a little bit differently there. So I think we talked through some of this. I just wanna make sure we cover our points [00:14:43] Darryl Peek: here. One thing I’ll do an aside, you talked about the acre of diamonds. I’m a big fan of that story. [00:14:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah, let’s talk about Russ Con. Yeah, [00:14:49] Darryl Peek: let’s talk about it. Do you all know about the Acre Diamonds? Have you all heard that story before? No. You have some those in the audience. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: I, you know what, let’s talk about it. All [00:14:56] Darryl Peek: See, I’m from Philadelphia. [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: I didn’t know you were a family. My daughter went to Temple University. [00:14:59] Vince Menzione: Ah, [00:15:00] Darryl Peek: okay. That’s all I know. So Russell Conwell. So he was, a gentleman out of the Philadelphia area and he went around town to raise money and he wanted to raise money because he believed that there was a promise within a specific area. And as he continued to raise this money, he would tell a story. [00:15:14] Darryl Peek: And basically it was a story about a farmer in Africa. And the farmer in Africa, to make it really short was essentially looking to be become very wealthy. And because he wanted to become very wealthy, he believed that selling his farm and going off to a long distant land was the primary way for him to find diamonds. [00:15:28] Darryl Peek: And this farmer didn’t sold us. Sold his place, then went off to to this foreign land, and he ended up dying. And people thought that was the end of the story, but there was another farmer who bought that land and one time this big, and they called him the ot, came to the door and said you mind if I have some tea with you? [00:15:43] Darryl Peek: He said, all right, come on in. Have a drink. And as he had the drink, he looked upon the mantle and his mouth dropped. And then the farmer said what’s wrong? What do you say? He says, do you know what that is? No. He said no. Do you know what that is? He says, no. He said, that’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and the farmer goes. [00:16:01] Darryl Peek: That’s weird because there’s a bunch right in the back where I go grab my fruits and crops every day. So the idea of the acre diamonds and sometimes that you don’t need to go off to a far off land. It is actually sometimes right under your feet, and that is a story that helped fund the starting of Temple University. [00:16:16] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna need to take you at every single event so you can tell this story again. That’s an awesome job. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they founded a Temple University. Yeah. Which has become an incredible university. My daughter, like I said, my daughter’s a graduate, so we’re Temple fan. That’s great story. [00:16:31] Vince Menzione: That is a very cool, I didn’t realize you were a Philadelphia guy too, so that is awesome. Go birds. Go birds. All right, good. So let’s talk, I think we talked a little bit about your ecosystem approach, but maybe just a little bit more on this, like you said, like a lot of data, a lot of metrics but also a lot of these organizations also have to under understand the engineering side of things. [00:16:53] Vince Menzione: Oh, yeah. There’s a tremendous amount to become. Not everybody could just show up one day and become an elastic partner [00:16:58] Darryl Peek: absolutely. Absolutely. So take us [00:16:59] Vince Menzione: through that process. [00:17:00] Darryl Peek: Yeah. So one of the things that we are trying to mature and we have matured is our partner go to market. [00:17:06] Darryl Peek: So in order to join our partner ecosystem, you have to sign ’em through our partner portal. You have to sign our indirect reseller agreement. ’cause we do sell primarily within the public sector through distribution. And we only go direct if it is by exception. So you have to get justification through myself as well as our VP for public sector. [00:17:21] Darryl Peek: But we really do try to make sure that we can aggregate this because one thing that we have to monitor is terms and conditions. ’cause of course, working with the government, there’s a lot of terms and conditions. So we try to alleviate that by having it go through caresoft, they’re able to absorb some, so this way we can actually transact with the government. [00:17:36] Darryl Peek: In regards to the team though we try to really work closely with our solution architecture team. So this way we can develop clear enablement strategies with our partners so this way they know what it is we do, but also how to properly bring us up in a conversation. Also handle objections and also what are we doing to implement our solutions within other markets. [00:17:55] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we are doing as well as partner marketing. Top of funnel activity is really important, so we’re trying to differentiate what we’re doing with the field and field marketing. So you’re doing the leads and m qls and things of that nature also with partner marketing. So our partner marketing actually is driven by leads, but also we’re trying to transact. [00:18:10] Darryl Peek: And get Ps of which our partner deal registration. So that is how we align our partner go to market. And that is actually translating into our partner source outcomes. [00:18:18] Vince Menzione: And I think we have a slide that talks a little bit about your public sector partner strategy. [00:18:23] Darryl Peek: Oh yeah. Oh, I share that. So I thought maybe we could spin it. [00:18:25] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. [00:18:25] Vince Menzione: I know you we can’t see it, but they can. Oh, they can. Okay. Great. [00:18:29] Darryl Peek: There it’s there. [00:18:30] Vince Menzione: It’s career. [00:18:31] Darryl Peek: One thing, I think this was Einstein has said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So that was the one thing. So I always was a big fan of creating a one page strategy. [00:18:39] Darryl Peek: And based on this one page strategy one of the things when I worked at Salesforce it was really about a couple things and the saying, okay, what are your bookings? And if you don’t have bookings, what does your pipeline look like? If you don’t have pipeline, what does your prospecting look like? [00:18:51] Darryl Peek: Yeah. If you don’t have prospecting what does your account plan look like? And if you don’t have an account plan, why are you here? Why are you here? Exactly. So those are the things that I really talk to my team about is just really a, it’s about bookings. It’s about pipeline. It’s about planning, enablement and execution. [00:19:05] Darryl Peek: It’s about marketing, branding and evangelism, and also about operational excellence and how to execute. Very cool. So being able to do that and also I, since I came from Salesforce, I talk to my team a lot about Salesforce hygiene. So we really talk about that a lot. So make, making sure we’re making proper use of chatter, but also as we talk about utilizing ai, we just try to. [00:19:21] Darryl Peek: How do we simplify that, right? So if we’re using Zoom or we’re using Google, how do we make sure that we’re capturing those meeting minutes, translating that, putting that into the system, so therefore we have a record of that engagement with that partner. So this is a continuous threat. So this way I don’t have to call my partner manager the entire time. [00:19:36] Darryl Peek: I can look back, see what actions, see what was discussed, and say, okay, how can we keep this conversation going? Because we shouldn’t have to have those conversations every time. I shouldn’t have to text you to say, give me the download on every partner. Every time. How do we automate that? And that’s really where you’re creating this context window with your Genive ai. [00:19:53] Darryl Peek: I think they said what 75% of organizations are using one AI tool. And I think 1% are mature in that. But also a number of organizations, it’s 90% of organizations are using generative AI tools to some degree. So we are using gen to bi. We do use a number of them. We have elastic GPT. Nice little brand there. [00:20:11] Darryl Peek: But yeah, we use that for not only understanding what’s in our our repositories and data lakes and data warehouses, but also what are some answers that we can have in regards to proposal responses, RP responses, RFI, responses and the like. [00:20:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re reaching out to the other LLMs through your tool? [00:20:26] Darryl Peek: We can actually interact with any LLM. So we are a LLM Agnostic. [00:20:29] Vince Menzione: Got it. Yep. That’s fantastic. And this slide is we’ll make this available if you don’t have a, yeah, have a chance. We’ll share it. I [00:20:36] Darryl Peek: am happy to share, yeah. And obviously happy to talk, reach out about it. Of, of course. I simplified it in order to account for you, but one of the things that I talk about is mission, vision of values. [00:20:45] Darryl Peek: And as we start with that is what is your mission now? How is anybody from Pittsburgh, anybody steal a fan? Oh wow. No, there’s a steel fan over [00:20:54] Vince Menzione: here. There’s one here. There’s a couple of ’em are out here. So I feel bad. [00:20:57] Darryl Peek: The reason why I put immaculate in there is for the immaculate reception, actually. [00:21:00] Darryl Peek: Yes. And basically saying that if you ever seen that play, it was not pretty at all. It was a very discombobulated play. Yeah. And I usually say that’s the way that you work with partners too, because when that deal doesn’t come in, when you gotta make a call, when you’re texting somebody at 11 o’clock at night, when you’re trying to get that at, right before quarter end. [00:21:17] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Before the end of it. It really is difficult, but it’s really creating that immaculate experience. You want that partner to come back. I know it’s challenging, but I appreciate how you leaned in with us. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate how you work with us. I appreciate how you held our hand through the process, and that’s what I tell my team, that we have to create that partner experience. [00:21:32] Darryl Peek: And maybe that’s a carryover from Salesforce, Dave. I don’t know. But also when we talk about enhancing or accelerating our partner. Our public sector outcomes that is really working with the customer, right? So customer experience has to be part of it. Like all of us have to be focused on that North star, and that is really how do we service the customer, and that’s what we choose to do. [00:21:48] Darryl Peek: But also the internal part. So I used to survey my team many moves ago, and I said, if we don’t get 80% satisfaction rate from our employees how do we get 60% satisfaction rate from our customers? Yeah. So really focus on that employee success and employee satisfaction. It’s so important, is very important. [00:22:03] Darryl Peek: So being able to understand what are the needs of your employees? Are you really addressing their concerns and are you really driving them forward? Are you challenging them? Are you creating pathways for progression? So those are things that I definitely try to do with my team. As well as just really encouraging, inspiring, yeah. [00:22:19] Darryl Peek: And just making sure that they’re having fun at the same time. [00:22:21] Vince Menzione: It shows up in such, I, there’s an airline I don’t fly any longer, and it was a million mile member of and I know it’s because of the way they treat their employees. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: Because it cascades Right? [00:22:30] Darryl Peek: It does. Culture is important. [00:22:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:22:32] Darryl Peek: What is it? What Anderson Howard they say what col. Mark Andresen culture eat strategy for [00:22:37] Vince Menzione: breakfast. He strategy for breakfast? Yes. Very much this has been insightful. I really enjoyed having you here today. Really a great, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. [00:22:43] Vince Menzione: Darry, isn’t you? Amazing. So thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Thank And you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be sticking around for a little while today. I’m sticking around for a little while. I’ll be back in little later. I think people are gonna just en enjoy having a conversation with you, a little sidebar. [00:22:55] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you all for having me. Glad to be here. And thank you for giving the time today. [00:23:01] Vince Menzione: Thank you Darryl, so much. So appreciate it. And you’re gonna have to come join me on this Story Diamond tool. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. [00:23:12] Vince Menzione: We’re bringing these episodes to you to help you level up your strategy. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to take action and think about joining our community. We created a unique place, UPX or Ultimate partner experience. It’s more than a community. It’s your competitive edge with insider insights, real-time education, and direct access to people who are driving the ecosystem forward. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: UPX helps you get results, and we’re just getting started as we’re taking this studio. And we’ll be hosting live stream and digital events here, including our January live stream, the Boca Winter Retreat, and more to come. So visit our website, the ultimate partner.com to learn more and join us. Now’s the time to take your partnerships to the next level.

Per approfondire gli argomenti della puntata: Altre pillole dal 45 a oggi : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNGzCF04vi4&list=PLpMrMjMIcOkkDwQQVtLtYa1BczFWc-R5f&index=1&ab_channel=LaBibliotecadiAlessandria Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year, Retrospectors! We'll return with new episodes from Monday 5th January, but in the meantime the team have been choosing their favourite episodes from 2025 that are worthy of a second listen. First up, Olly has selected our conversation about ‘New Coke'. Coca-Cola was approaching its 100th birthday on 23rd April, 1985, when it unveiled a new beverage at New York City's Lincoln Center: the ‘smoother, rounder, bolder' flavour of ‘New Coke'. The success of Diet Coke had fragmented the market, and, in response to Pepsi's aggressive marketing campaigns targeting younger consumers, Coke had sought to introduce a sweeter formula. But, instead of offering the new formula alongside the original, they made the catastrophic decision to discontinue their classic recipe, known as Merchandise 7X.  The company had conducted extensive taste tests involving 190,000 consumers, which indicated a preference for the new formula. However, these tests overlooked the deep emotional connection many had with the original Coke. Protest groups like the Society for the Preservation of the Real Thing and Old Cola Drinkers of America, founded by Gay Mullins, emerged, reflecting the public's dissatisfaction, and, just 79 days after the launch, on July 11th, 1985, Coca-Cola held a press conference to announce the return of the original formula - now branded as "Coca-Cola Classic."  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal those hardcore cola fans who stockpiled soda like it was gold; uncover the psychiatrist's opinion that Coke's most committed customers were behaving as if they'd experienced a bereavement; and consider the conspiracy theories that suggest Coca-Cola engineered the whole debacle deliberately… Further Reading:  • ‘Coke, The Taste That Distresses' (The Washington Post, 1985): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/06/07/coke-the-taste-that-distresses/1f0758dd-98a2-4a9d-ae1c-c188c2228354/ • ‘New Coke Didn't Fail. It Was Murdered' (Mother Jones, 2019): https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/07/what-if-weve-all-been-wrong-about-what-killed-new-coke/ • ‘1985: Coca-Cola launches new Coke' (CBS Evening News, 1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8j97dOLsyk #80s #Advertising #Mistakes #Food Love the show? Support us!  Join 

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USIn this powerful episode of the True Life Podcast, host George Monty delivers a hard-hitting “daily transmission” exposing how corporations and systems deliberately manufacture scarcity to drive profits, control populations, and prevent true abundance from reaching everyday people. Drawing on real-world examples from food, housing, medicine, and more, George reveals the patterns of consolidation, surplus destruction, and artificial shortages that keep society desperate and divided. He calls for recognition, documentation, and rebellion against this “scarcity weapon,” urging listeners to investigate local resources and demand the withheld plenty. This episode is a wake-up call to see beyond the narratives of inflation and supply chain issues to the engineered theft of abundance.Host: George MontyPodcast: True Life PodcastDuration: Approximately 10-15 minutes (based on transcript length)Release Date: Estimated based on content references (late 2025)Listen Here: Explore more episodes and connect with George Monty on the TrueLife platform. Key Timestamps & HighlightsGeorge's monologue flows as a continuous narrative, but we've broken it down into thematic sections with approximate timestamps for easy navigation:•  00:00 - 01:00: The Illusion of Struggle George opens by challenging the narrative that you're failing—it's engineered starvation in abundance. He prompts listeners to check their finances and see how earnings vanish despite higher pay, labeling it “2025's manufactured scarcity” designed for control and extraction.•  01:00 - 02:30: From Ancient Famines to Modern Engineering Contrasting natural famines with today's deliberate hunger, George highlights U.S. food production capacity (enough for 10 billion people) versus 34 million facing food insecurity amid record corporate profits.   He exposes the “machine that weaponizes emptiness.” •  02:30 - 04:00: Food Shortages Exposed•  2024 egg shortage: Not avian flu, but corporate consolidation by Cal-Maine Foods (20% market control), leading to tripled prices and $535 million in profits. •  2022-2024 baby formula crisis: Abbott's monopoly (43% market) caused shutdowns, boosting stock 34% while parents turned to black markets. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/doj-egg-prices-rise-cal-maine-profits•  04:00 - 05:00: Housing and Tech Hoarding•  Housing crisis: 16 million vacant homes in the U.S. versus over 600,000 homeless, as empty properties prove more profitable. •  2025 semiconductor shortage: TSMC's alleged deliberate restrictions via leaked emails to maintain pricing, with chips stockpiled while car prices soar.  (Note: Related to trade secret leaks; broader shortage context available.)https://unitedwaynca.org/blog/vacant-homes-vs-homelessness-by-city/•  05:00 - 06:30: Surplus Destruction and Corporate Mandates George uncovers patterns of destroying goods under USDA/EPA/FDA protocols lobbied by corporations.  He cites the 2024 NASS report (Appendix G, p. 847) on 2.3 billion pounds of produce destroyed to avoid “market destabilization.”  Kroger's 2019 leaked memo advocates “optimal scarcity ratios” for urgency buying. https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2023/09/20/usda-expands-efforts-prevent-and-reduce-food-loss-and-wastehttps://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/2024/index.phphttps://www.nationofchange.org/2024/09/03/corporate-greed-exposed-kroger-admits-to-price-gouging-on-milk-and-eggs-amid-antitrust-trial/•  06:30 - 08:00: The Scarcity Playbook Step-by-step breakdown: Consolidate supply, engineer shortages (restrict, destroy surplus), profit from desperation. Blame shifts to weather or labor, not architects.•  08:00 - 10:00: Historical and Ongoing Examples•  2008 housing crisis: Banks held 3.5 million foreclosures as “shadow inventory” to keep prices high. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis•  2020 toilet paper: Procter & Gamble and Georgia-Pacific (55% control) restricted distribution for 300% price surges at 64% capacity. https://www.resourcewise.com/market-watch-blog/are-we-really-running-out-of-toilet-paper-in-the-covid-crisis•  2021 lumber: Weyerhaeuser and West Fraser (40% control) quadrupled prices with underused mills. https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/lumber-prices-hit-record-highs-soaring-past-year-2021-4-1030299977•  2023 prescription drugs: Wholesalers like McKesson, Cardinal, and AmerisourceBergen (95% control) restrict insulin ($2 production cost) amid shortages. https://www.mmm-online.com/home/channel/drug-shortages-in-america/•  2025 water: Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Pepsi (75% bottled water) amid contaminated public supplies. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/bottled-water-market•  10:00 - 11:30: Broader Patterns of Waste Amazon destroys 2 million unsold products yearly for scarcity pricing.  Pharma discards effective expired meds.  Energy firms flare gas for 10 million homes.  McKinsey's 2023 report recommends 15-20% below-demand inventory for margins.  Supply chain “disruptions” post-2020? Traffic normalized by Q3 2021, but prices stayed high via throttling. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-campaigns-boycotts/amazons-burning-approach-unsold-returned-productshttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10834166/

Unser heutiger Gast war einer der Ersten, der in unserem Podcaststudio Platz nahm. In Folge 23 (!) sprachen wir über die Kraft der Disziplin, die Magie von Soundtracks und darüber, wie man in Hollywood überhaupt ernst genommen wird, wenn man aus Nordhorn kommt. Heute, 501 Folgen später, ist er zurück. Und es ist kein Interview, sondern ein Gespräch, das wir bei uns und er in seinem Podcast HUNGRY streamen Er ist Komponist, Musiker, Unternehmer und Gründer von 2WEI Music, einem der weltweit gefragtesten Studios für Trailer-, Werbe- und Game-Musik. Von Fluch der Karibik bis Wonder Woman, von Porsche bis Pepsi, von Hamburg bis Los Angeles. Sein Team arbeitet an der Schnittstelle von Emotion, Technologie und Klang. Und das mit einem Anspruch, der weit über Awards und Plays hinausgeht: Musiker:innen Bedingungen zu geben, so dass sie von ihrer Musik leben können. In dieser gemeinsamen Jahresrückblick-Folge sprechen wir über Themen, die uns beide 2025 bewegt haben. Was bedeutet Partnerschaft in einer Welt, in der alles schneller und unpersönlicher wird? Warum ist es so wichtig, sich auch angemessen aus Partnerschaften zu verabschieden, die nicht mehr funktionieren? Wie verändert künstliche Intelligenz (kreative) Prozesse und wie begegnet man der Angst vor dem Kontrollverlust? Und was braucht es, um ein Unternehmen aufzubauen, das nicht nur erfolgreich ist, sondern auch Haltung hat? Seit über acht Jahren beschäftigen wir uns in diesem Podcast mit der Frage, wie Arbeit den Menschen stärkt, statt ihn zu schwächen. Wir haben in über 500 Episoden mit fast 700 Persönlichkeiten darüber gesprochen, was sich verändert hat und was sich noch verändern muss. Heute nehmen wir euch mit in ein Gespräch, das persönlicher ist als sonst, in dem auch Tränen fließen und das trotzdem, oder vielleicht genau deshalb, voller Erkenntnisse steckt. Ihr seid bei On the Way to New Work und bei Hungry, in einem Weihnachtsgespräch, das wir ab jetzt jedes Jahr führen wollen. Wir? Das sind der wunderbare Simon Heeger und ich, Michael Trautmann [Hier](https://linktr.ee/onthewaytonewwork) findet ihr alle Links zum Podcast und unseren aktuellen Werbepartnern

If you ever rode rear-facing in a station wagon or took a “fart walk” to survive the holidays… welcome home. This week, we're wrapping up 2025 by revisiting the moments that made us laugh hardest, cry a little, and feel deeply connected to you this past year. (Thank you for your voicemails and emails into the show. Our listeners are the heart of Laugh Lines and we cannot wait to keep it going in 2026!)This episode is a love letter to the Laugh Lines community. We're checking back in with some of our favorite callers and guests, including a 10-year-old inventor who reminds us why ADHD brains are magic, why using Gen Z lingo can be helpful, and the very serious debate of Diet Coke vs. Diet Pepsi. Plus, Penn shares his official “nuggets” from the year (aliens may or may not be involved) and Sam & Ann Marie pop in to close the show. Thanks for being here, thanks for listening so closely, and don't worry we will be back in January. Until then, be kind, take the walk, and drink the Diet Coke (or Pepsi, if you must.) We hope you keep laughing with us next year!We love to hear from you (and tell us what you want in 2026!) leave us a message at 323-364-3929 or write the show at podcast@theholdernessfamily.com. You can also watch our podcast on YouTube.Visit Our ShopJoin Our NewsletterFind us on SubstackFollow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTok Follow us on FacebookLaugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness is an evolution of The Holderness Family Podcast, which began in 2018. Kim and Penn Holderness are award-winning online content creators known for their original music, song parodies, comedy sketches, and weekly podcasts. Their videos have resulted in over two billion views and over nine million followers since 2013. Penn and Kim are also authors of the New York Times Bestselling Books, ADHD Is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD and All You Can Be With ADHD. They were also winners on The Amazing Race (Season 33) on CBS. Laugh Lines is hosted and executive produced by Kim Holderness and Penn Holderness, with original music by Penn Holderness. Laugh Lines is also written and produced by Ann Marie Taepke, and edited and produced by Sam Allen. It is hosted by Acast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 100 years of the Coca Cola versus Pepsi soft drink war, has the battle been won, with Pepsi now 3rd on the list of the biggest selling fizzy drinks in the world?Joining Seán to discuss is Eoin Burke-Kennedy, Economics Correspondent of The Irish Times…

Mike Nett, GM of Trading Cards and Memorabilia at eBay, joins Passion to Profession to share his path from childhood collecting to running the largest trading card marketplace in the world. We talk about how his experiences at Pepsi, Amazon, and PSA shaped the way he thinks about collectors, sellers, and trust at scale. Mike pulls back the curtain on how eBay makes product decisions, why sellers are the engine of the hobby, what 2025 data revealed about collector behavior, and how small experience changes can have massive impact. This conversation is about growth, perspective, and building for collectors without losing the human side of the hobby. A special thank you to eBay for sponsoring Passion to Profession. The biggest and best marketplace to buy your next favorite trading card.Get exclusive content, promote your cards, and connect with other collectors who listen to the pod today by joining the Patreon: Join Stacking Slabs Podcast Patreon[Distributed on Sunday] Sign up for the Stacking Slabs Weekly Rip Newsletter using this linkFollow Stacking Slabs: | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tiktok ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Innovation doesn't fail because companies lack ideas—it fails because leadership and culture aren't built to support change. In this episode, Paul Alex sits down with Bud Caddell, founder of NOBL (nobl.io), to break down what actually stops organizations from executing on bold ideas. Bud shares real-world lessons from working with global brands and fast-growing companies, explaining how misaligned incentives, poor leadership behaviors, and broken decision-making systems quietly kill innovation. He also reveals what leaders must do differently to build cultures where change doesn't just start—but actually sticks. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a team leader, or building from the ground up, this conversation will reshape how you think about leadership, culture, and execution. Your Network is your NETWORTH! Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024 Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNB9ivoJf7ppjuSplOAkEZw LinkedIn: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024 Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur? Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:

Interview Date: September 14th, 2025Episode Summary:In this inspiring conversation, Carol Borjas Cantrell shares her remarkable evolution from a Venezuelan rhythmic gymnast to touring the world as a professional dancer and raising the next generation of talent, including her daughter Kylie Cantrell (Disney's Descendants: The Rise of Red).Carol walks listeners through her early ballet training, her scholarship to Tremaine in Los Angeles, and how she built a 30-year career dancing for icons such as Paul McCartney, Lou Bega, and Brian McKnight. She opens up about adapting to the U.S. industry, navigating agencies and visas, and the lessons that have shaped both her and her daughter's artistic paths.Throughout the episode, Carol offers practical insight on auditions, tour life, staying “camera-ready,” and balancing motherhood with a professional career. Her message to dancers is simple but powerful — prepare relentlessly, stay grounded, and do the brave thing, even when the path ahead feels uncertain.This episode is perfect for dancers, parents of young performers, and aspiring pros who want an inside look at what it takes to sustain longevity in the ever-changing dance world.Shownotes:(0:00) – Welcome & intro to Carol Borjas Cantrell's journey(3:44) – Tour credits with Paul McCartney, Brian McKnight & Lou Bega(10:51) – Early training in Venezuela & rhythmic gymnastics foundation(13:56) – Tremaine scholarship & moving to L.A. at 17(16:50) – Audition evolution: from in-person to self-tapes(21:37) – Visa journey & path to U.S. citizenship(29:32) – Tour highlights & behind-the-scenes moments(35:18) – Advice for Kylie on tour life & balance(47:42) – Teaching resilience & confidence to young performers(1:26:19) – Closing words: live your passion & stay camera-readyBiography:This Venezuelan born dancer/choreographer has over 20 years experience. She began with ballet and contemporary dance. Carol also trained in Rhythmic gymnastics for 12 years receiving numerous honors… including, five consecutive years, Venezuela's “Best Gymnast”. Once she moved to Los Angeles she began working in the industry with artists like, Paul McCartney, (World tour), Country icons Brookes and Dunn, Hip Hop legends: Will Smith, P Diddy, Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J. Brian Mc Night etc. 
She has appeared in movies like Austin Powers, Cinderella Story & more. She hosted an Entertainment Television show called “Hablemos De Cine” on Azteca America, interviewing both Spanish and American celebrities. She has done several national TV commercials including Dodge Durango with Will Ferrel, Gain Detergent, AT&T, Pepsi, Sprite and many more. In television she has danced on MTV Movie Awards, Guys Choice awards, Image Awards etc. She appeared on television series like Alias, American Idol to name a few. For the past seven years Carol is the choreographer of a Spanish TV network ( Estrella TV)  Choreographing, and appearing and some of the shows including the Spanish version of Dancing with the Stars, and Los Premios de la Radio a la musical regional Mexicana.Carol also had a special appearance, on the ABC series,"America's Got Talent.”Carol has appeared on several Warner Brothers productions for the famous series “Gilmore Girls” also Netflix shows “Fuller House”,  “Jane the Virgin” and Show Time series “Penny Dreadful” and she recently also appeared on the new prequel “Dexter”.Connect on Social Media:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caroljborjas?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr  

Unmasking Hidden Sugars in 'Healthy' Drinks: Leyla Muedin, a registered dietitian nutritionist, examines the surprising amounts of sugar found in commonly perceived 'healthy' drinks. She discusses how beverages like energy drinks, fruit smoothies, and chai lattes can exceed the daily recommended sugar intake, based on a study by Ben's Natural Health. Leyla warns that even health-focused products and homemade drinks can contain high sugar levels, which can impact weight, blood sugar levels, and overall health. She emphasizes the importance of being an 'ingredient sleuth' and making informed choices. 

America's seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker fits with the stated goals in its new national-security strategy: untrammelled hemispheric dominance. How much of the document is polemic and how much will become policy? The long-run costs of the work-from-home revolution are becoming apparent in many American cities. And the one region where Pepsi is the cola of choice.Get a world of insights by subscribing to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America's seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker fits with the stated goals in its new national-security strategy: untrammelled hemispheric dominance. How much of the document is polemic and how much will become policy? The long-run costs of the work-from-home revolution are becoming apparent in many American cities. And the one region where Pepsi is the cola of choice.Get a world of insights by subscribing to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoff, Gavin and Andrew talk about phone mystery, a mysterious dog, Regulation Detectives, reverse osmosis, advent calendar, Black Metal Friday, sponsorship, Ball x Pit, playing games wrong, Crackdown, Fallout 3, radio, Regulation Colors, Blobby, the most normal, Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks, percent gravity, franchises, and sushi. BLACK METAL FRIDAY is THIS FRIDAY at https://regulationstore.com and use code BLACKMETAL to get 16% off starting Friday through Cyber Monday DECEMBER 1st we're doing an advent calendar on our Patreon all the way through Christmas Eve! Join as a free member on Patreon.com/theregulationpod Sponsored by AG1. Head to DRINKAG1.com/REGULATION to get a FREE Welcome Kit with an AG1 Flavor Sampler and a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2, when you first subscribe! Support us directly at https://www.patreon.com/TheRegulationPod Stay up to date, get exclusive supplemental content, and connect with other Regulation Listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices